I have So Many Questions On This Story

CNN is reporting a story about the police shooting a seven-year old girl while executing a search warrant. With respect to CNN, I have to put the entire story in here rather than quoting from it:

Police in Detroit, Michigan, on Sunday expressed "profound sorrow" at the fatal shooting of a 7-year-old girl in a police raid.

Aiyana Jones was shot and killed by police executing a search warrant as part of a homicide investigation, Assistant Chief Ralph Godbee said in a statement.

"This is any parent's worst nightmare," Godbee said. "It also is any police officer's worst nightmare. And today, it is all too real."

The warrant was executed about 12:40 a.m. ET Sunday at a home on the city's east side, Godbee said. Authorities believed the suspect in the Friday shooting death of 17-year-old high school student Jarean Blake was hiding out at the home. Blake was gunned down in front of a store as his girlfriend watched, Godbee said.

Preliminary information indicates that members of the Detroit Police Special Response Team approached the house and announced themselves as police, Godbee said, citing the officers and at least one independent witness.

"As is common in these types of situations, the officers deployed a distractionary device commonly known as a flash bang," he said in the statement. "The purpose of the device is to temporarily disorient occupants of the house to make it easier for officers to safely gain control of anyone inside and secure the premise."

Upon entering the home, the officer encountered a 46-year-old female inside the front room, Godbee said. "Exactly what happened next is a matter still under investigation, but it appears the officer and the woman had some level of physical contact.

"At about this time, the officer's weapon discharged one round which, tragically, struck 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley Jones in the neck/head area."

The girl was immediately transported to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Godbee said he and other officers went to the hospital while others stayed at the home to execute the warrant.

Aiyana's father, Charles Jones, told CNN affiliate WDIV, "She was sleeping and they came in the door shooting and throwing flash grenades ... burned my baby up and shot her, killed her."

Jones claimed the officers had the wrong house, but Godbee said in the statement the 34-year-old suspect in Blake's death was found and arrested at the home. In addition, a vehicle and a moped matching the descriptions of those involved in Blake's shooting were also found, he said.

The suspect's name was not released.

Godbee said he wished to "express to the family of Aiyana Jones the profound sorrow that we feel within the Detroit Police Department and throughout this community. We know that no words can do anything to take away the pain you are feeling at this time."

Police obtained the "high-risk search warrant" based on intelligence, and it was approved by the prosecutor and a magistrate, Godbee said. "Because of the ruthless and violent nature of the suspect in this case, it was determined that it would be in the best interest of public safety to execute the search warrant as soon as possible and detain the suspect ... while we sought a murder warrant," he said.

The police statement said Chief Warren Evans is out of town and could not be present "to personally address this tragedy," but "his thoughts and prayers are with the family and loved ones of Aiyana Jones."

The officer's weapon was secured, and an investigation is under way, Godbee said, emphasizing the information gained so far is preliminary.

"This is a tragedy of unspeakable magnitude to Aiyana's parents, family and all those who loved her," Godbee said. "... It is a tragedy we also feel very deeply throughout the ranks of the Detroit Police Department.

"We cannot undo what occurred this morning," he said. "All we can do is pledge an open and full investigation and to support Aiyana's family in whatever way they may be willing to accept from us at this time. I understand that they may not be open to such a gesture at this time, but we do stand ready to do anything we can to support them."

So much here, I don't know how to respond.

Let me start with a few inferences. Notice that the report does not say how big the Special Response Team (read SRT or SWAT) entering the home was. It would be no less than four and possibly as many as ten entering the house. No word on whether the SRT had any information on where in the house the suspect was located. There is no mention of the probably cause or whether SRT had any information as to the other occupants of the house--like a child.

Now some other observations need to be made. This statement

Upon entering the home, the officer encountered a 46-year-old female inside the front room, Godbee said. "Exactly what happened next is a matter still under investigation, but it appears the officer and the woman had some level of physical contact.

"At about this time, the officer's weapon discharged one round which, tragically, struck 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley Jones in the neck/head area."

This is meant to sound like the weapon just "went off." I'm sorry, the quality of weapons carried by SRT teams and even by regular street cops don't just "discharge" by themselves. We are talking about tactical assault weapons, like the H&K MP5, with incredible reliability (not that I know that is the weapon of choice for Detroit SWAT, but there are others of similar quality out there). There is negligence here. Assuming there was a physical confrontation with a woman in the front room, why was the officer or officers involved unable to contain the situation. Here is my theory: the officer involved in the altercation with the woman was engaged with her with one hand while his other hand was still on his weapon's trigger. That means, during the altercation, he did not have full control of either the woman or his weapon. In the struggle, somewhere, his finger flexed and fired his weapon--with disastrous consequences.

Also, why is a flash bang grenade necessary in a house at 12:40 AM? Simply biologically and socially, most people are either asleep or so slow to respond at that hour that a flash bang seems excessive. If you really want to naturally slow down response time, execute the warrant at about 4:00 am, the slowest time for most people's brains and bodies.

Finally, there appears to be a total lack of training here. A seven year old girl looks nothing like a 34-year old man and there was clearly no target recognition going on here. Even in a "high risk" environment, a police force must take careful pains to not pull the trigger on the first thing that moves. They didn't shoot the woman right?

Yeah, the father and mother of this girl have a righteous case.

How many more of these incidents will need to occur before we start to think long and hard about changing our policing methods? Couldn't a patient surveillance have been better? Why not take the time to find out who else was in the house? Lots of questions that won't be answered for a long time.