North Miami police have identified the officer who shot an unarmed mental-health worker as a 30-year-old member of the department’s SWAT team.
Jonathan Aledda has been with the North Miami police for four years. Aledda was placed on administrative leave with pay as an investigation surrounding the shooting of behavior therapist Charles Kinsey continues.
Aledda had one complaint filed against him in 2013 by a victim of a robbery who Aledda mistook for the suspect. Aledda was cleared in that incident following an investigation.
A second North Miami officer, Cmdr. Emile Hollant, was also suspended without pay for giving false statements about his involvement in the shooting. Sources said Hollant was heard over the radio informing dispatch and other officers he saw a suspect with a gun. When questioned about the incident, Holland reportedly told investigators that he was not at the scene when the incident occurred.
“As your mayor of this great city of North Miami, I assure you that we will go wherever the truth takes us and any necessary decisions will be taken by the proper authorities,” North Miami Mayor Dr. Smith Joseph said.
The incident unfolded on Monday, when Kinsey was attempting to retrieve an autistic patient who had wandered from a nearby group home. North Miami police said Aledda and other officers were dispatched to the scene following reports of a suicidal man with a gun wandering the streets. Eye witness cellphone video showed Kinsey lying on the ground with his hands in the air during an interaction with police. It does not show the shooting.
Officers found Kinsey and his patient, a 24-year-old autistic man who was playing with a toy truck, and ordered them to the ground. Kinsey was shot in the leg. Police later said shooting Kinsey was an accident.
The head of the police union said on Thursday Aledda was aiming for patient and missed.
Hilton Napoleon, an attorney representing Kinsey, said it is not likely that any officer with Aledda’s training could miss a shot from 50 yards away.
“I don’t understand if he’s aiming at the autistic kid, how he could miss,” Napoleon said. “He had plenty of time to tell my client to move.”
[Source:- UPI]
