DETROIT, Michigan — A judge on Friday declared a second mistrial after a jury was unable to reach a verdict in the trial of a Detroit police officer who fatally shot a sleeping girl during a police raid in 2010.
Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway declared a mistrial in the case of officer Joseph Weekley, who faced a charge of reckless discharge of a firearm in the death of Aiyana Stanley-Jones. A previous trial also ended in a mistrial.
Wayne County Prosecutor spokeswoman Maria Miller said the office has not decided whether to try the case again. A hearing is scheduled for Nov. 21.
Weekley’s retrial in the shooting case came up as the shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white officer in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri, led to weeks of protests, some violent and inflamed a national discussion over police use of force.
Weekley also had been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the shooting, a charge that the judge tossed out before closing arguments.
Detroit police were searching for a suspect in a fatal shooting when they stormed a building where the girl was sleeping. The suspect was apprehended and later sentenced to life in prison. Aiyana’s father, Charles Jones, was convicted of providing him the murder weapon.