Lawyer to announce wrongful death suits in alleged police shooting of 7-year-old Detroit girl

Attorney to file suits in death of Detroit girl, 7

DETROIT — Events leading to the fatal shooting of a 7-year-old girl by a Detroit officer may have been videotaped by a crew for a reality TV series that accompanied police as they searched the victim’s home for a murder suspect.

Any video could reveal whether Aiyana Jones was fatally shot by an officer whose gun mistakenly discharged inside the house, as police say, or if lawyer Geoffrey Fieger’s claim of a cover-up proves to be correct.

Fieger, who represents the Jones’ family, said he would announce two wrongful death lawsuits Tuesday. Members of the Jones family were expected to talk to reporters during the news conference at the lawyer’s office in Southfield.

Police have said officers threw a flash grenade through the first-floor window of the two-family home early Sunday and that an officer’s gun discharged during a struggle or after a collision with the girl’s grandmother. The crew for the A&E series “The First 48″ was with police.

Fieger, however, said the official account was full of “utter fabrications.” He said he has seen a video showing police throwing the grenade and then shooting into the home from the porch. He would not say if the footage came from the A&E crew.

“There is no question about what happened because it’s in the videotape,” Fieger said Monday. “It’s not an accident. It’s not a mistake. There was no altercation.”

“Aiyana Jones was shot from outside on the porch,” he said.

Assistant Chief Ralph Godbee said police want that tape.

“If Mr. Fieger has access to anything that would be evidence in this case, he should, as an officer of the court, get it immediately to the Michigan State Police, which will be investigating,” Godbee said in an e-mail.

Godbee also said the police department has asked for footage shot by “The First 48″ crew, which has been in Detroit for several months while shadowing homicide investigators on a nearly daily basis. Neither Godbee nor A&E would say whether that request was granted.

A&E spokesman Dan Silberman said the network would not comment about the case, and he denied a request by The Associated Press for its footage.

“The First 48″ chronicles the efforts of homicide detectives during the critical first two days after someone is killed. Thanks to the access provided by police departments across the nation, the show takes viewers to crime scenes, autopsies, forensic processing and interrogations.

The crew was on-hand Friday following the shooting death of a 17-year-old Detroit high school student outside a party store not far from Aiyana’s home. When the elite Special Response Team prepared to raid the ramshackle duplex early Sunday to look for the suspect in the teen’s slaying, a camera also may have been rolling.

The police department declined to say whether it was being paid by the television show.

Fieger said more than one camera was recording at the scene and that the footage he saw includes sound.

“The videotape shows clearly that the assistant police chief and the officers on the scene are engaging in an intentional cover up of the events,” Fieger said.

Police have said the target of the raid, a 34-year-old man, was arrested in the upstairs unit of the duplex. Police had warrants to search both units, and family members of the slain girl were seen going in and out of both on Monday. The suspect has not been charged, and it was not immediately clear what relationship he had to the slain girl.

The case has been handed over to the Michigan State Police to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said.

Police have not identified the officer whose gun fired the shot that killed Aiyana. Godbee said he is a 14-year veteran with six to seven years on the Special Response Team and that he has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

The officer was cleared following a nonfatal shooting last summer in which police returned fire after being were fired upon by someone barricaded in a house, Godbee said.

The Detroit police department has been under two court-ordered consent decrees since 2003 aimed at, among other things, correcting how and when its officers use force on suspects.