The City of North Miami plans to fire a commander who was at the scene of the police-involved shooting of an unarmed behavioral therapist last summer.
Commander Emile Hollant received an intent to terminate letter Wednesday after an Internal Affairs report revealed he lied about witnessing the incident on July 18, 2016. Hollant has until Friday to request a pre-determination hearing to fight the termination.
Commander Hollant has been on administrative leave for months and was trying to get his job back.
Officials said Hollant, who was the highest ranking officer involved, was at the scene before, during and after Officer Jonathan Aledda shot caretaker Charles Kinsey in the leg as he lay on the ground with his hands in the air. Sitting next to Kinsey was his autistic patient, Arnaldo Rios Soto, who was playing with a silver toy truck. Aledda was charged with several counts of attempted manslaughter and culpable negligence.
When officials arrived to the scene of the shooting, Hollant told investigators he did not witness the incident, according to an internal affairs report. However, investigators said interviews with other officers contradicted that claim.
In August, the State Attorney's Office announced it would not file charges against Hollant because at the time investigators believed he was not a witness. It's unclear if that decision will now be reversed and if he will be charged with obstruction of justice.
The report also revealed that Hollant lied to Chief Gary Eugene, telling him he did not witness the shooting. Hollant later apologized to Chief Eugene for lying, according to the report.
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His fellow officers told investigators that Hollant "did not identify himself as a witness, did not provide a statement or write a supplementary report" which caused "inaccurate information to be entered into the investigated record," the report said.
The termination letter also cited allegations of negligence by Hollant during the standoff.
"Commander Hollant was not on the radio for approximately two minutes while conflicting information was being provided," the report said.
Last week, NBC 6 exclusively obtained video of police interviews with the officers involved in the shooting. In the video, Sgt. Milton Reid described to investigators what happened the moments shots were fired.
“That’s when I heard boom, boom, boom. At that point, I didn’t know if that was us. They had shot. I am looking at the two people and just trying to figure out what the hell happened,” he said.
An initial 911 call indicated Soto was holding a weapon, but it was later determined to be a toy. Officer Alens Bernadeau told investigators he announced that the autistic man was in fact holding a toy truck.
“I did get on the air and advised. I said ‘I am advising units that there is a subject with him’ and he is advising that the gentleman has a toy car. I am not sure if I said a toy car; I did advise a toy,” Bernadeau said.
Aledda was not the closest officer to the scene and was 152 feet from Kinsey when he fired, according to his arrest affidavit.
"Officer Aledda was not in a position to correctly assess the situation or in a position to accurately fire," the State Attorney's Office said in a statement.
Aledda pleaded not guilty and claimed he believed Soto was causing harm to the caretaker, prompting him to shoot. He said he tried to shoot Soto, but missed and shot Kinsey in the leg.
Kinsey survived and later filed a lawsuit against the police department. Last week, Soto's family filed a lawsuit against North Miami police over the way the autistic man was treated at the scene and at the police station after the shooting.
