North Miami police officer charged In 2016 shooting of caretaker of autistic man

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A North Miami police officer who shot the caretaker of a man with autism last summer has been charged with attempted manslaughter, reports ABC news.

North Miami police officer charged

On Wednesday, the Florida State Attorney’s Office announced charges for North Miami Police Officer Jonathan Aledda for the July 18, 2016, shooting of behavioral therapist Charles Kinsey, who was unarmed.

Initial 911 calls described a “possibly suicidal” man with a “silver weapon in his hand,” and officers with the North Miami Police Department were dispatched to the scene, according to the release from the state attorney’s office.

Incident

ABC reports:
“The man detailed in the call was a resident of the Miami Achievement Center for the Developmentally Disabled, according to the release. After the resident had left the center, Kinsey closely followed him in “an attempt to return him from the street back into the facility,” the release states. The man was holding a silver tanker truck toy in his hand, according to the release.

Aledda fired three shots, one of which struck Kinsey. At 152 feet away, Aledda was “not in the position to correctly assess the situation or in a position to accurately fire,” the release states. Two other police officers “were within 20 feet of the situation” when Aledda fired.

Photos after the incident showed Kinsey laying on the ground with his arms up as the man with autism sits next to him.”

In addition to the attempted manslaughter charge, which is a third-degree felony, Officer Jonathan Aledda is being charged with culpable negligence, a first-degree misdemeanor.

The state attorney’s office said the charges are “the result of a lengthy inquiry,” which included a prosecutor’s review of the police investigation, numerous police and prosecutor meetings to review case evidence, site enactments and statements from police witnesses.