Miami

Prosecutors Will Retry North Miami Police Officer in Therapist Shooting

Officer Jonathan Aledda was acquitted on one misdemeanor negligence count earlier this month

What to Know

  • Officer Jonathan Aledda was acquitted on one misdemeanor negligence count earlier this month
  • A jury was deadlocked on the three other charges, including a second negligence charge and two counts of attempted manslaughter

A North Miami police officer accused of shooting and wounding a severely autistic man's caretaker will face a second trial on three of the four charges he previously faced, prosecutors announced Wednesday.

Officer Jonathan Aledda was acquitted on one misdemeanor negligence count earlier this month, and a jury was deadlocked on the three other charges, including a second negligence charge and two counts of attempted manslaughter. A mistrial was declared on those three charges.

The jury foreperson said the vote was 5-1 to acquit Aledda of the other charges. The new trial is scheduled to begin June 30th.

Aledda testified that he thought Arnaldo Rios Soto had a gun and was holding his caretaker, Charles Kinsey, hostage. It turned out Rios was holding a toy truck. Aledda insisted he never heard another message on police radio that it wasn't a gun.

The incident gained national attention after it was partially captured on a bystander's video. Authorities said Kinsey was lying in the street with his arms upraised, begging police not to shoot.

Prosecutors say Rios had left his nearby group home and sat down in the road to play with his toy. A motorist called 911, saying the man was holding what may be a gun and appeared suicidal. Kinsey was trying to coax him back into the home when police arrived and surrounded them.

Aledda, a trained SWAT member, fired, striking Kinsey in the leg. Aledda's defense lawyer, Douglas Hartman, blamed faulty radios and poor supervision by the North Miami Police Department for the miscommunications that led to the shooting.

Aledda is the first police officer charged with an on-duty shooting by Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, who took office in 1994.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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