The North Miami cop who [**shot an unarmed caretaker who had his hands in the air**](https://photographyisnotacrime.com/2016/07/20/north-miami-cop-shoots-man-with-hands-up-begging-not-to-be-shot/) while trying to kill his autistic companion for holding a toy truck was named “Officer of the Month” in [**September 2013**](https://www.facebook.com/GreaterNorthMiamiChamberofCommerce/photos/a.10151710088672620.1073741830.89988577619/10151710089252620/?type=3&theater) and in [**October 2014.**](http://www.northmiamipolice.com/recognition/officer_month/2014/2014_oct.asp)
Jonathan Aledda, 30, who has been a cop for four years, also won an [**“excellence award”**](https://umshare.miami.edu/web/wda/nursing/EE_Pictures/alumni_pictures/heartbeat/8-087_heartbeat_fall_08.pdf) after graduating from a nursing program at the University of Miami in 2008.
“I took this job to save lives and help people,” Aledda said in a statement this week after the story of him shooting caretaker Charles Kinsey in the leg went viral.
“I did what I had to do in a split second to accomplish that and hate to hear others paint me as something I’m not.”
But it was hardly a split second considering police were on the scene for 15 minutes before he opened fire, a period of time police said they were negotiating with Kinsey and the 24-year-old autistic man holding the toy truck.
And during that time, Kinsey told officers on the scene pointing their weapons on them that neither one of them had a gun.
While a [**police union president said the shooting was completely justified**](https://photographyisnotacrime.com/2016/07/21/north-miami-police-meant-kill-autistic-man-instead-injuring-caretaker/) because Aledda was trying to protect Kinsey from being shot with the toy truck, his commander, Emile Holland, [**has been suspended without pay**](http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/north-miami-cop-suspended-for-giving-conflicting-statements-in-charles-kinsey-shooting-8621774) for trying to fabricate the police report of the incident.
So obviously they knew they had screwed up.
And although Aledda claims he was trying to keep Kinsey safe from the autistic man armed with a toy truck, police were sure to handcuff him, then left him lying in the street for 20 minutes as he bled from his leg.
When Kinsey asked Aledda why he had shot him, the award-winning officer said, “I don’t know.”
