From [HERE] A member of an elite Detroit police unit is set to stand trial again for killing a seven-year-old girl during a 2010 raid on her house that was captured on video by a reality TV crew.

Nobody alleges that Officer Joseph Weekley intended to kill Aiyana Stanley-Jones, who had been sleeping on a couch near the front door when officers burst through around midnight in search of a murder suspect. But prosecutors charged him with involuntary manslaughter because they believe he handled his submachine gun recklessly, causing the girl’s death. Weekley is white and Jones was Black.

Jury selection starts on Monday in Wayne County court, 15 months after Weekley’s first trial ended with the mostly white jury [11 white] unable to agree on a verdict. [MORE]

The night Aiyana Jones was killed, Detroit police's Special Response Team were searching for murder suspect, Chauncey Owens, who was engaged to Aiyana's aunt, in connection with the May 14, 2010, murder of 18-year-old Jerean Blake. Weekley was a member of this SWAT unit. After obtaining a search warrant, police kicked in the front door of the home on Lillibridge, where Owens was thought to be hiding. 

They threw a flashbang grenade into the downstairs flat of a multi-family home about 12:40 a.m. and Weekley was accused of firing the bullet that struck and killed the girl, who was sleeping on the couch in the front room of the home. The "flash-bang" light-emitting grenade was meant to distract suspects. 

Weekley was first through the door, with a shield in one hand and a gun in the other. He claims he accidentally pulled the trigger when Aiyana’s grandmother, Mertilla Jones, grabbed his submachine gun. She denies that she interfered in any way.

During Weekley’s first trial, a fellow officer, Shawn Stallard, testified that he did not see anyone struggle with Weekley. He said Detroit police are trained to push away anyone who tries to grab an officer’s gun or to move the weapon in a “J’’ shape to keep control of it.