The family of a 24-year-old woman killed by a bullet from an off-duty Detroit police officer's gun while the two were were dancing wants the case reopened after prosecutors declined to press charges, the Huffington Post reports.
Adaisha Miller attended a fish fry hosted by Officer Issac Parrish at his home in the city on a Saturday in July 2012, the Post reports. Miller, who would have turned 25 the following Monday, was celebrating her birthday early.
Parrish was off duty but wearing his gun, the Post reports. While Miller was dancing with him that night, the weapon discharged, striking her in heart and piercing a lung, the news site says.
The Detroit Police Department and the Wayne County Prosecutor investigated the death, according to the Associated Press.
In a petition at Change.org, Miller's family says that a "thorough, unbiased" investigation was "not conducted and that there was a blatant disregard for due process, policy and procedures in regards to timely disclosure of evidence, information and results."
The petition continues: “The family of Adaisha Miller were purposely mislead about the reason the investigation was halted only to find out via the Sunday night news that your department had concluded it's investigation without ever speaking to the family or friends of Adaisha—and the officer was CLEARED of any wrongdoing.”
The demand that the case be re-investigated has gained more than 400 signatures.
Yolanda McNair, Miller’s mother, told WJBK-TV that she started the petition because she believes authorities "dropped the ball."
"Why wouldn't they agree that he was negligent?" McNair asked. "I'm not saying that he set out to kill my daughter, but he wasn't being a responsible adult, either."
But Wayne County Prosecutor's Office spokeswoman Maria Miller told The Huffington Post in an email Monday that prosecutors' position had not changed.
"The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office conducted an extensive independent investigation of the facts and circumstances surrounding the death of Adaisha Miller and concluded that the evidence would not support charging the off-duty police officer," Miller wrote in the email to the Huffington Post. "We do not plan to re-open the case."
Read more at the Huffington Post.