Grandma of 7-year-old girl killed during Detroit police raid testifies: Police ‘came to kill’

DETROIT — Beneath a multi-colored quilt of Disney cartoon characters, 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones lay peacefully on the living room couch of her grandmother’s first-floor flat on Detroit’s east side.

Mertilla Jones lay at the other end, having recently put the girl to sleep.

Within seconds — maybe as few as three — a stun grenade smashed through a window, exploding over the couch. Armed, black-clad and masked police officers swarmed into the living room and, moments later, Aiyana lay bleeding to death with a gunshot wound to her head.

“As soon as they came in, their guns were just pointing right there, and he pulled the trigger,” Aiyana’s grandmother, Mertilla Jones said Monday of Joseph Weekley during the Detroit police officer’s involuntary manslaughter trial in Wayne County Circuit Court.

“I seen the light leave out of her eyes and the blood started gushing out her mouth and she was dead,” testified the 50-year-old Jones, who then broke into tears.

For members of the Detroit police special response team, the May 2010 nighttime raid on the two-family flat on Lillibridge was one of hundreds they had taken part in as a unit. This time they were being shadowed by a crew from the reality TV show, “The First 48.”

Armed with an MP5 submachine gun and behind a shield, team veteran Weekley was selected as point man for the operation — tasked with being first into the home in search of murder suspect, Chauncey Owens.

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Mark Foster and Kenna Hike Mt. Kilimanjaro

In 2010, inspired by the global water crisis, the musician and activist Kenna organized Summit on the Summit, a hike to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro with several fellow performers, including Jessica Biel and Lupe Fiasco. The trek was turned into an MTV documentary also intended to raise awareness of the many nations affected by a lack of clean water.

To kick off the new year, Kenna has climbed the mountain again with a new team, including Foster the People singer Mark Foster. The two paused at the peak of Kilimanjaro to deliver this exclusive video message to Rolling Stone, during which they explain the purpose of their hike and describe their view at 16,000 feet.

If I was in my mid-20s again, I’d be doing shit like this instead of pretending that work was important.

via @aaronpaul_8.

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Turning a church into a residential house | Amazing Data

Zecc Architects turned St. Jakobus church in the Netherlands into a modern house, which was already registered as a municipal monument for the historic significance it had.

I’m not a fan of the Amazing Data website and the pictures are a little small but it’s perty cool.

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Always has been, always will be. |-)

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