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North Miami
Police Department officer Jonathan Aledda was charged with
attempted manslaughter, a felony, and culpable negligence, a
misdemeanor, according to the Miami-Dade State Attorney's
office.
The shooting of behavioral therapist Charles Kinsey, who was
with and caring for a severely autistic man when he was shot,
was one in a series of police shootings of black men across the
United States to raise questions about police use of force and
civil rights.
Aledda defended his actions last July, saying "I did what I had
to do in a split second." The Miami-Dade Police Benevolent
Association, which is representing Aledda, was not immediately
available for comment.
The officer was responding to reports of a man with a gun and
apparently was aiming at the autisic man when he shot Kinsey,
according to an affidavit supporting the arrest warrant filed
with the state court for Miami-Dade County.
Kinsey had followed police commands and was lying on the ground
at the time he was shot. He had been trying to get the autistic
man back to a nearby group home from which he had wandered.
Hilton Napoleon, a lawyer for Kinsey, was not immediately
available for comment.
Initial calls to 911 emergency dispatchers reported a man,
possibly suicidal, with a gun in his hand, which led to the
arrival of 16 police officers, including Aledda. What a caller
thought was a gun turned out to be a toy tanker truck held by
the autistic man, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit said the autistic man, who is now 27 and has an IQ
of 40, needed around-the-clock supervision.
In a video widely shared on social media, Kinsey can be heard
yelling, "All he has is a toy truck in his hands."
The affidavit said Aledda fired three shots using his personally
owned Colt M4 Carbine rifle from about 150 feet (45 meters)
where Kinsey lay.
"No other officer on the scene observed (the autistic man)
exhibit any behavior that compelled them to shoot," the
affidavit says.
(Reporting by Bernie Woodall; Editing by Daniel Trotta and
Andrew Hay)
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