Detroit rally marking Aiyana death leads to arrests
Detroit police took six demonstrators into custody Wednesday after they chained themselves to a police precinct building gate and entrance during a rally commemorating the 2010 fatal shooting by police of a 7-year-old girl.
The arrests capped an emotionally charged march and rally on what would have been the 14th birthday of Aiyana Stanley-Jones, the youngster who was asleep on a sofa when police raided her family’s east side home May 16, 2010. Camera crews filmed the nighttime raid for the cable TV show “The First 48.”
Organizers with Black Lives Matter Detroit and other groups who gathered first at Pallister Park about 6 p.m. Wednesday and moved to the Third Precinct building demanded the immediate firing of Officer Joseph Weekley, who led the Detroit Police Special Response on the raid. Seconds after entering the Jones home, Weekley claimed the girl’s grandmother, Mertilla Jones, slapped at his gun, causing it to fire and kill Aiyana.
After two mistrials, the charges against him were dropped. In April 2015, he returned to the Police Department on “limited duty” after a five-year absence. This year, Weekley was named co-chair of a police Committee on Race and Equality, which demonstrators decried.
Read more: http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2016/07/20/police-prepare-remove-black-lives-matter-protesters/87364960/