Florida Officer Who Shot at Autistic Man and Injured His Caretaker Has Conviction Overturned

The 2019 conviction of a SWAT officer who shot at a severely autistic man and injured his caretaker as he attempted to get his patient out of the street has been overturned.

Former North Miami Police Department Officer Jonathan Aledda, a white man, opened fire striking Charles Kinsey, who worked at a behavioral group home on July 18th, 2016. Kinsey was trying to get his severely autistic patient, Arnaldo Rios-Soto, away from a busy city street after he ran away from the nearby group home. The SWAT team responded to the incident after receiving reports that a man was holding a gun sitting in the road. Before Aledda arrived, officers Kevin Crespo and Alens Bernadeau responded first and were told by Kinsey that Rios-Soto’s was not armed and faced mental challenges. Crespo and Bernadeau had issued several commands to Kinsey to demonstrate that he and Rios-Soto were unarmed. However, Aledda took it upon himself to fire shots, hitting Kinsey in the thigh.

In 2017, Aledda was charged with two felony counts of attempted manslaughter with a deadly weapon, one misdemeanor count of culpable negligence for injuring Kinsey, and one misdemeanor count of culpable negligence for endangering Rios-Soto. However, a mistrial was ultimately declared two years later. During the June 2019 retrial, Aledda was convicted of misdemeanor culpable negligence. He was sentenced to administrative probation and ordered to pen an essay.

On Wednesday, February 16th, the Florida Third District Court of Appeal overturned Aledda’s conviction, claiming that the trial judge excluded vital testimony from the SWAT commander who trained Aledda.

Another trial will be held, though if Aledda is found not guilty, he could likely be reinstated on the force.

Kinsey called the decision to overturn the conviction “saddening” and feels that the criminal justice system only reversed the conviction to quickly get Aledda back on the force.