Lawyer questions police version of raid that killed girl

By the CNN Wire Staff

(CNN) — An attorney representing the family of a 7-year-old
girl shot to death Sunday in a police raid is accusing the Detroit
Police Department of misrepresenting the incident.

In an
interview with CNN affiliate WDIV on Monday, Michigan attorney Geoffrey
Fieger said he obtained video footage of the incident captured by a crew
filming for the A&E network show, "The First 48."

Fieger,
who didn’t say how he received the tape, said it shows officers rushing
the home and throwing a flash grenade through a window before one
officer fires into the home from the front porch.

However,
according to Assistant Police Chief Ralph Godbee, preliminary
information indicates that members of the Detroit Police Special
Response Team approached the house and announced themselves as police.
Godbee cited the officers involved and at least one independent witness.

Godbee said officers used a "flash bang" device, entered the home
and encountered a 46-year-old female inside the front room.

"Exactly
what happened next is a matter still under investigation, but it
appears the officer and the woman had some level of physical contact,"
Godbee said in a statement Sunday. "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."

Police were executing a
search warrant in the search for the suspect in a shooting Friday that
killed a high school student.

Godbee said the 34-year-old suspect was
found and arrested at the home where the girl was shot. In addition, a
vehicle and a moped matching the descriptions of those involved in the
shooting of 17-year-old Jarean Blake were also found, he said.

Fieger
called the explanation from police "entirely false."

"Of course,
I have seen the videotape and the videotape vividly portrays the fact
that a percussion grenade device was thrown through the front window and
a shot was fired immediately from the outside from the porch," he said.

"No murder suspect was found in Aiyana’s house," Fieger said in
Monday’s interview. "In fact, there’s an upstairs apartment next door
which the police did not have a search warrant for and that is where he
surrendered, they went into that house too. But he was not in Aiyana’s
house."

Aiyana’s father, Charles Jones, also has denied that the
suspect was in his home.

Detroit police spokesman Phillip Cook
told reporters Monday that he was not aware of the video and declined to
comment. The investigation, he said, has been taken over by state
police to preserve the "community’s trust."

A source at A&E,
who asked not to be identified citing company policy, confirmed that a
crew was on the scene and that the footage was confiscated by police. He
would not comment on what the crew had captured on video.

Another
police spokesman said the department would not identify the suspect in
Blake’s shooting death until he has been formally charged by
prosecutors. The suspect remains in custody.

Godbee, in his
statement Sunday, 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."