The North Miami Police commander who was suspended for allegedly giving inconsistent statements after an officer shot an unarmed behavioral therapist last month won't face charges, officials said.
Commander Emile Hollant was suspended without pay after he allegedly gave conflicting statements to investigators or command staff officers following the July 18 shooting of Charles Kinsey by Officer Jonathan Aledda.
But according to a memo from the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office Public Corruption Unit released Thursday, the accusation was a result of a "simple miscommunication."
According to the memo, Hollant said he was present before the shooting took place but had returned to his police car over a block away to retrieve some binoculars when he heard the gunshots fired by Aledda.
Hollant had told investigators he was not a witness to the shooting but they concluded he was, the memo said.
"Commander Hollant did not lie and there was no intent to mislead or obstruct investigators or command staff officers regarding his involvement in the police shooting," the memo said. "He was present at the immediate scene before the shooting and after, and his involvement is captured to some degree in police radio transmissions."
Kinsey was shot in the leg and spent days in the hospital. Aledda has been placed on paid administrative leave while the shooting is investigated.
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Police said officers responded to the scene after they received a 911 call of an armed man threatening suicide. In the call released Thursday, the unidentified woman told the 911 operator that the man appeared to be mentally disturbed and that another man was trying to talk him out of killing himself.
But Rios was only holding a toy truck. The police union says the officer was trying to shoot Rios because he thought he was about to shoot Kinsey.
Meanwhile, Kinsey has filed a federal lawsuit claiming Aledda violated his constitutional rights when he shot him.
"They left him in the middle of the street handcuffed until the ambulance came while he was bleeding out," Kinsey's attorney, Hilton Napoleon, told NBC 6. "He did everything that he could possibly do and he tried to assist the police and when this happened to him it was a shock for all of us."
Kinsey is seeking damages, but Napoleon wouldn't specify amount.
"We're looking in the range for what has been similarly offered throughout the country in police-involved shootings especially in a case like this where a man is as cooperative and as innocent as you possibly can be," he said.
