(Associated Press) The four North Miami police officers who aimed rifles at a black therapist and an autistic man in the middle of an intersection were responding to a 911 call about a suicidal man with a gun. The 27-year-old autistic man sat cross-legged. He yelled. He didn't obey commands to lie down with his hands up, as the therapist was doing, and he fidgeted with a metal object.
One of the officers, Jonathan Aledda, thought the disabled man was about to shoot his therapist Charles Kinsey, who was trying to coax him back to a nearby group home, the officer's union said. The officer fired three shots at the disabled man because he thought he was a threat, but he missed and accidentally struck Kinsey in the leg.
The metal object turned out to be a toy truck and there was no suicide threat. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has taken over the investigation. Meanwhile, a police commander was suspended for allegedly fabricating information about the shooting.