DETROIT, Michigan - November 22, 2010 - An investigation has been launched after a seven-year-old girl was shot dead by police during a bungled raid on a Detroit home.

Aiyana Mo'nay Stanley-Jones was asleep on the sofa when a police SWAT team hurled a flash-bang grenade into the apartment and smashed the front door down.

The little girl was hit in the head by a bullet fired by one of the officers, Joseph Weekley, as a television camera crew filmed their exploits for a new show.

Critics have accused the Detroit Special Response Team of being influenced by the fact they were on camera.

“I'm worried they went Hollywood,” a high-ranking Detroit police official told www.motherjones.com. “It is not protocol; and I've got to say in all my years in the department, I've never used a flash-bang in a case like this.”

Aiyana's death sparked a massive public outcry after it was revealed the officers had raided the wrong apartment and the suspect they were trying to arrest was in a flat upstairs.

Police initially claimed her grandmother had grabbed the officer's gun, but then said she had brushed it as she ran past the door.

But Mertilla Jones said she reached over to her granddaughter and was nowhere near the officer.

The officers were trying to arrest Chauncey Owens in connection with the shooting of Je'Rean Blake Nobles, 17, outside a nearby liquor store.

But instead they targeted the apartment of Charles Jones, 25, whose daughter was sleeping inside.

A camera crew was filming an episode of The First 48, a true-crime program in which homicide detectives have just 48 hours to solve a murder case before the trail goes cold.

The officer whose weapon fired the fatal shot had previously featured on another show - Detroit SWAT - and was the lead officer into the apartment.

A Detroit police detective told the motherjones site, “You don't go into a home around midnight. People are drinking. People are awake. Me? I would have waited until the morning when the guy went to the liquor store to buy a quart of milk. That's how it's supposed to be done.”

The SWAT team was said to be unaware of the presence of children inside the apartment, despite an informant telling them children lived there and toys being present on the lawn.

The official added, “It was a total f***-up. A total, unfortunate f***-up.”

Owens was arrested minutes later upstairs and charged with the shooting of Mr. Nobles.

Aiyana was rushed to St John's Hospital, but was pronounced dead.

The incident took place on May 16, and thousands of people protested about police brutality at Aiyana's funeral the following week.

Her family has since filed two wrongful death lawsuits against Detroit police.

Lawyers acting for the family have claimed that video footage of the raid showed the fatal bullet was fired from outside the apartment.

Democrat Congressman John Conyers called for the FBI to carry out an investigation into her death in June.
The outcome of the police investigation has been forwarded to prosecutors to determine whether or not to press charges against Detroit police and officers involved in the fatal shooting.