Aiyana Stanley-Jones

Aiyana Stanley-Jones, 7, was shot in the head and killed by Detroit Police Special Response Team Officer Joseph Weekley just after midnight on May 16, 2010, as she slept on a couch next to her grandmother during a raid on their home in search of a murder suspect who did not live there. The raid, being filmed for the A&E reality show "The First 48," began with another officer throwing a flash-bang grenade through the window; Weekley, first through the door, said his gun fired when the girl's grandmother, Mertilla Jones, struck it during a struggle, which she denied under oath. Weekley was charged with involuntary manslaughter and careless discharge of a firearm. His first trial ended in a hung jury in 2013; a judge later dismissed the manslaughter charge outright during his second trial in 2014, and that jury deadlocked on the remaining misdemeanor count as well, resulting in a second mistrial. Prosecutors declined to pursue a third trial, and all charges were formally dropped in January 2015. No one has ever been convicted in Aiyana's death.

Detroit, MI · Wayne County

• 2010: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The raid, the flash-bang grenade, and the shooting, per Detroit Police Department records and trial testimony from both of Weekley's criminal trials.
• The raid was being filmed for the A&E reality television series "The First 48"; Aiyana's family has said they believe officers' conduct that night was influenced by the presence of cameras.
• Weekley testified his gun discharged when Mertilla Jones, Aiyana's grandmother, struck it during a struggle; Jones testified under oath that she never touched the weapon, and another officer present testified there was no struggle.
• Weekley's first trial in 2013 ended in a hung jury; in his 2014 retrial, the judge dismissed the involuntary manslaughter charge for insufficient evidence, and the remaining jury deadlocked on the misdemeanor careless-discharge charge, resulting in a second mistrial.
• Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced in January 2015 that her office would not seek a third trial, and all charges against Weekley were formally dismissed.
• The actual murder suspect police were searching for did not live at the address raided and was apprehended elsewhere; Aiyana's father was separately convicted of providing that suspect with the murder weapon in an unrelated case.

• Whether Weekley's gun discharged because Jones struck it, as he maintained, or accidentally for another reason, as Jones and a fellow officer's testimony suggested, was never resolved — two separate juries could not agree.
• Why officers conducted the raid on the wrong address for the suspect they sought has not been fully explained in public reporting beyond acknowledgment that the raid targeted the wrong home.
• The extent to which the presence of reality television cameras affected officers' tactical decisions that night, as the family has alleged, has never been independently investigated or resolved.

• The Detroit News — “Judge cites 'justice' in dropping charge against cop”
• CBS News — “Second mistrial in Detroit cop's fatal shooting of girl, 7”
• Reuters, via Yahoo News — “Case against Detroit policeman who shot child ends in second mistrial”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs