Attorneys begin screening prospective jurors today in a high-profile Detroit manslaughter trial that could reveal how the presence of TV reality show cameras influenced police on a fateful May 2010 night.
Detroit police officer Joseph Weekley is accused of involuntary manslaughter.
[Photo from Fox 2 News]
AP reporter Ed White sets the scene in a report posted by Fox 2 News.
Police accompanied by a reality TV crew fired a stun grenade through a window as they raided a Detroit home in search of a murder suspect. A gunshot then went off inside, fatally striking a 7-year-old girl in the head while she slept on a couch.
Now three years later, Officer Joseph Weekley goes on trial in the death of Aiyana Stanley-Jones. Jury selection starts Wednesday.
Weekley, charged with involuntary manslaughter, is accused of acting with gross negligence when he didn't prevent his gun from firing during the chaos that followed use of a "flash-bang" device.
The shooting shocked Detroit. Cooperation between police and the reality show, "The First 48," was banned.
The police officer is defended by prominent attorney Steve Fishman, who also represented Kwame Kilpatrick until recently.
Weekley "had nothing to do with the planning of the raid and was merely a police officer assigned to a certain position . . . by a superior officer," Fishman said in [court] filings.
White provides background of the 2010 raid:
Officers hunting for a suspect in the murder of a 17-year-old boy staked out a home that night on Lillibridge Street. Weekley was first through the door when the grenade went off during the midnight raid.
Police have said his gun accidentally discharged after he confronted or collided with Aiyana's grandmother. A bullet struck and killed Aiyana, one of four children inside.
