$8.25 Million Settlement With Detroit for Family of 7-Year-Old Girl Shot by Police During 2010 Raid
After trial: The case settled before trial, so there was no verdict; the only appeal was an earlier pretrial appeal on gross negligence, which the Michigan Supreme Court declined to hear. Detroit's corporation counsel confirmed the amount and said the City Council had to approve it.
A 7-year-old girl asleep on a couch with her grandmother was fatally shot in the head during a May 2010 Detroit police raid. Two criminal trials of the officer ended in hung juries and the charge was later dismissed. In April 2019, days before the civil trial was to begin, the City of Detroit settled the family's lawsuit for $8.25 million.
What happened
On May 16, 2010, Detroit police went to a duplex on the city's east side looking for a murder suspect who lived in the adjoining unit. A 7-year-old girl was asleep on a couch in the front room of the other unit, next to her grandmother. Officers threw a stun grenade through a window, and Officer Joseph Weekley then entered carrying a ballistic shield and an MP-5 submachine gun. His weapon fired, and the bullet struck the girl in the head. She died within an hour of reaching the hospital. The raid was being filmed by a crew from the A&E series The First 48.
Weekley said the gun went off after the girl's grandmother slapped at it. The grandmother denied touching the weapon. The family's lawyers argued that the stun grenade thrown into the room had left the people inside unable to move, and that the shooting was the result of how the raid was planned and carried out.
The girl's father, her mother and her estate sued Weekley and the city in Wayne County Circuit Court. Their claims included gross negligence, assault and battery, and wrongful death with survival damages. Geoffrey Fieger of Fieger Law in Southfield represented the family. Lawrence Garcia, the city's corporation counsel, represented Detroit.
The civil case moved slowly. Weekley was charged with involuntary manslaughter and tried twice. The first trial ended with a deadlocked jury, the judge dismissed the manslaughter charge during the second trial in 2014, and that jury also deadlocked on the remaining charge, which prosecutors dropped in January 2015. Fieger later said the city's bankruptcy and an appeal had also held up the lawsuit. Two courts ruled that a jury could decide whether Weekley's conduct amounted to gross negligence, and in 2018 the Michigan Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal, which cleared the way for trial.
On April 4, 2019, four days before the civil trial was set to begin, the two sides announced a settlement of $8.25 million. The city covered the claim against Weekley, and both Fieger and the city confirmed the figure. Garcia called the settlement fair and said it balanced the needs of the girl's family with the city's responsibility for its finances. The settlement required approval from the Detroit City Council.
The resolution came nearly nine years after the shooting, and it ended the family's civil claims against both the officer and the city without a trial, after the case had run through two criminal trials and years of pretrial litigation.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.VerdictSearch, 'Officer negligently shot, killed 7-year-old girl, per lawsuit', Jones v. Weekley, No. 10-005660-NO, April 4, 2019·Archived copy
- 2.Michigan Public, 'Family reaches $8.25 million settlement with city of Detroit', April 4, 2019·Archived copy
- 3.CBS Detroit, '$8.25M settlement reached in police raid suit', April 4, 2019·Archived copy
- 4.WDIV ClickOnDetroit, 'Family of girl killed in Detroit police raid reaches settlement with city', April 4, 2019·Archived copy
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