Read about it here and here.

Grown man guns down teenage boy in front of his teenage girlfriend and other witnesses. Man flees. Witnesses give statements to police, and at some point the police ascertain a possible location for the suspect. The location is a duplex with top and bottom apartment units. The police get a no-knock warrant for both units, and execute it after midnight after identifying themselves as police officers. The next thing you know, 7-year-old Aiyana Jones is shot and killed, and her grandmother is arrested. If I remember correctly, witnesses said that the police DID identify themselves as police before storming the duplex.

Apparently, when the police entered the bottom unit, the grandmother attacked one of the officers, and during the fight the officer’s weapon discharged and shot the girl, who up until the raid had been asleep on a couch. Some police, including the one whose weapon discharged, immediately rushed her out of the house and accompanied her to the hospital, where she was pronounced DOA. Meanwhile, back at the duplex, the remaining police continue with the raid and apprehend the suspect in the upstairs unit.
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As is usual in police shootings involving blacks and other minorities, there are those who immediately place the blame on the police, and yell bloody murder. If this went down the way The Detroit News said it did (when I read the article over an hour ago; it could be updated with new information or corrections by now), then I believe that had the grandmother acted like she had some sense, the worst that would have happened was that family needing a new window pane and front door.

It’s the grandmother’s and the murder suspect’s fault that child is dead, and nobody else’s. It’s a testament to those police officers, and a sheer wonder, that the grandmother didn’t get everybody in that apartment killed. And, as for the murder suspect, what kind of idiot guns down someone – with witnesses around – and then GOES HOME (or runs to where he’s known to hang out at a lot)? My heart goes out to this family, but blame has to be placed where it rightfully belongs, and in this case, it’s NOT the police.

I’m not crazy about the police, at all. If I’m ever around when something is going down, especially involving blacks or other minorities, I watch them like HAWKS. I wouldn’t ever want to be a police officer, and I wouldn’t ever marry or date a police officer. But, I also know that the majority of police officers are good people with often lousy work environments (like anybody’s ‘hood), and I understand that sometimes they have to make major, life-altering decisions in a matter of split-seconds.

So, I’m not taking it easy on the police. However, in THIS specific case, it doesn’t look to me like they were in the wrong. I honestly think that had the grandmother acted rationally, little Aiyana would still be alive. Blame should be placed squarely where it belongs, and in this case, it’s not on the Detroit Police Department.

Nonetheless, a precious little girl is no longer with us. In all the finger-pointing that is still yet to come, let us not forget little Aiyana, who is now playing with the angels in Heaven.