More charges for officer who shot autistic man's unarmed caretaker

MIAMI - Authorities have upgraded charges against a North Miami police officer accused of illegally shooting an autistic man's caretaker who was on the ground with his arms in the air.

Prosecutors charged 30-year-old Officer Jonathan Aledda on Friday with additional attempted manslaughter and culpable negligence charges for the 2016 shooting of Charles Kinsey. Aledda already faced charges of manslaughter and culpable negligence for allegedly shooting Kinsey. The new charges relate to the man near Kinsey when the shooting occurred – autistic patient Arnaldo Soto, reports CBS Miami.

Investigators say Kinsey was following Soto who had left the facility with a silver tanker truck in his hand.  Kinsey was reportedly trying to return Soto to the facility at the time of the shooting.

Police say at some point they got calls about a man, possibly suicidal, with a silver weapon in his hand. That's when North Miami Police showed up.

Officers were spread out over several blocks with two officers within 20 feet of the two men to survey the situation, according to the station.

Kinsey yelled that Soto had a toy truck, according to the arrest affidavit. Cellphone video showed Kinsey lying on the ground with his arms up.

Investigators say Aledda, who was 152 feet away from both men, fired three shots during the situation – injuring Kinsey in the right thigh.

Kinsey spoke about the shooting.

"This is disturbing. I play this in my head every day and I can't sleep at night. This could have gone the other way. I'm blessed that it didn't," said Kinsey back in July 2016.

The State Attorney's Office reportedly determined Aledda was not in any position to correctly assess the situation or in a position to accurately fire, prompting the criminal charges.

The arrest affidavit further clarified that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) found Kinsey was heard yelling "all he has is a toy truck."

The affidavit states, "Officer Aledda expressed uncertainty about whether the object was a gun and said no other officer on the scene observed Soto exhibit any behavior that compelled them to shoot."

It also states, "once officer Bemedeau made it to his last point, approximately 15 to 20 feet away from Mr. Soto and Mr. Kinsey, he was able to see that the object in Mr. Soto's hand was ***not*** a gun."

The Miami-Dade Police Benevolent Association took issue with the arrest of Officer Aledda.

"This is a political arrest. It has been politicized, the entire arrest. Officer Aledda took this job to save lives. Officer Aledda made a split second decision back in July and nine months later the State Attorney hands down an indictment for this. If it was so clear cut why did it take nine months," said Luis Fuste with the Miami-Dade P.B.A.

CBS Miami reports that thisis  the first time, under Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, that there has been a prosecution of a police officer for an on-duty shooting.