North, Miami – A Florida appeals court overturned the conviction of a former North Miami Police SWAT officer who was found guilty of negligence after shooting an autistic man’s caretaker in 2016.
The highly publicized shooting that was caught on cell phone camera occurred when police responded to a call about a man with a gun. When officers arrived at the scene they encountered Arnaldo Rios-Soto and Charles Kinsey in the middle of an intersection. Rios-Soto, a 26-year-old man with autism, had escaped from a nearby group home where Kinsey was his caretaker.
Officer Jonathan Aledda was one of 13 officers who responded to the call, according to court documents. When police arrived, Rios-Soto was rocking back and forth while playing with a silver toy truck. Kinsey told the first two officers who arrived that Rios-Soto had a toy – not a gun. Aledda arrived sometime after that, and some of the officers on the scene said the Rios-Soto had a gun.
In the video, Kinsey can be seen laying on the ground with his hands in the air, yelling to officers that there was no threat.
“All he has is a toy truck in his hands. A toy truck,” Kinsey said in the video. “I am a behavior tech at a group home.”
Kinsey tried to calm down his patient, but Aledda ultimately fired three times at Rios. Two shots missed, but one hit Kinsey in the leg.
Although Aledda faced up to a year behind bars, he served no jail time. In 2019, Aledda was acquitted of two felony counts of attempted manslaughter but convicted of misdemeanor culpable negligence. He was sentenced to probation and lost his job.
During his appeal, Aledda’s lawyers argued that he thought he was observing a hostage situation.
“He took the shots because he believed that a hostage was in danger,” Schwartzreich and Bruno said in a statement.
In an opinion filed Wednesday, the 3rd District Court of Appeal wrote:
“We conclude that the trial court erred by not allowing Aledda — charged by the State with culpable negligence for his assessment of and response to a crime scene — to introduce testimony regarding how Aledda was trained to assess and respond in such circumstances.”
“I disagree with it,” Napoleon Hilton, Kinsey’s attorney, said regarding the appellate court’s decision. “I think that the police officers are given more of a benefit of a doubt than the regular citizen, and that’s not on the system of justice that our constitution provides.”
In a statement emailed to CNN, Florida State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said the decision is “disappointing to all who believed that this shooting incident was unnecessary and incorrect.” The office may ask the appeals court for a re-hearing, the statement continued.
Kinsey is also upset with the court’s decision to give Aledda a new trial.
“It’s saddening how our justice system is. I feel that as if, if that was a regular citizen here, that person would never have an opportunity to appeal those charges,” Kinsey told CBS Miami. “And I believe the only reason they’re doing this, is for him to get back on the force again. I don’t believe he should be on the force again”.
