North Miami police officer who shot unarmed therapist identified

Jul 23, 2016

During a Friday press conference, the city of North Miami finally released the name of the officer involved in the shooting of Charles Kinsey, the caregiver who was shot while taking care of an autistic patient.

The press conference was held by the mayor of North Miami, Smith Joseph, and the City Manager, Larry Spring, both of them black men. They identified Jonathan Aledda, a 30-year-old Hispanic male who had been on the force for four years.

Aledda has since been placed on administrative leave. There is a second officer who has also been placed on administrative leave without pay for what they call “evidence of conflicting statements,” what most of us simply call lying.

Spring gave a phone number to the public that they can call if they have any information on this case. He also stated that North Miami police officers will be making the rounds of churches and residences this weekend, trying to find more information on the incident.

This is just the latest shooting of an unarmed black man in the US in recent weeks. This shooting took place on Monday after Kinsey, who was trying to calm down one of his autistic patients, was approached by police. They ordered him to the ground, and he complied with his hands up in the air.

He tried to explain to police what was happening and that his patient has autism and was not going to hurt anyone. The autistic man had a toy truck in his hand that officers thought might be a weapon, and even though Kinsey told them what it was repeatedly, shots were still fired, hitting Kinsey in the leg.

Officer Aledda fired three shots, apparently at the autistic man, but missed and hit the victim.

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Not only did they not get immediate medical attention for the victim but they put the autistic man in the back of a squad car for hours, despite being aware that he had autism.

His sister, Miriam Janice Rivers, spoke out late Friday night saying that her brother had been traumatized by the entire incident. He had to be hospitalized and now has screaming episodes as well as intense fear and even flailing in his sleep.

Rivers claims that this is not over, and while her mother is “mortified, perplexed, angry and appalled,” she is “just tired.”