Gunfire in Brooklyn on Tuesday was not aimed at police, in spite of initial fears, investigators have determined.

Shots were fired from a black Nissan sedan. Cops initially thought the target was officers patrolling on E. 23rd St. near Flatbush and Ditmas Aves. in Flatbush at about 10:40 p.m. But surveillance video later showed the gunfire was aimed at a group of young people up the block.

Someone inside the car fired one shot. As the vehicle drove off, an occupant fired off a parting shot, cops said. Nobody was hit.

What was thought to be a bullet hole near where the cops were standing turned out to be a previously drilled hole, likely for a cable television wire.

The NYPD initially requested the MTA shut down city bridges while cops searched for the car, officials said. Though the bridges remained open, officers there were on the lookout for the Nissan, MTA officials said.

A therapist who works with people with disabilities is telling his story after he said police shot him while he was trying to help his patient with autism.

Cellphone video was released Wednesday afternoon showing Charles Kinsey lying on the ground with his hands in the air, telling officers that weapons are not necessary. “When I went to the ground, I’m going to the ground just like this here with my hands up,” Kinsey said, “and I am laying down here just like this, and I’m telling them again, ‘Sir, there is no need for firearms. I’m unarmed, he’s an autistic guy. He got a toy truck in his hand.”

In his hospital bed, Kinsey said, he was attempting to calm an autistic patient who ran away from a group home. Kinsey could be heard in the video saying, “All he has is a toy truck. A toy truck. I am a behavior therapist at a group home.”

He is also heard asking his patient to calm down. “Rinaldo, please be still, Rinaldo. Sit down, Rinaldo. Lay on your stomach.”

The ordeal went on for a few minutes before Kinsey said one of the officers shot him. “I’m like this right here, and when he shot me, it was so surprising,” Kinsey said. “It was like a mosquito bite, and when it hit me, I’m like, ‘I still got my hands in the air, and I said, ‘No I just got shot! And I’m saying, ‘Sir, why did you shoot me?’ and his words to me, he said, ‘I don’t know.'”

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Kinsey’s lawyer, Hilton Napoleon, is outraged. “There’s no justification for shooting an unarmed person who’s talking to you and telling you that they don’t have a gun, and that they’re a mental health counselor,” Napoleon said.

North Miami Police have not released the officer’s name or an update on their investigation. However, they did say that the State Attorney is now involved with the investigation.

A juvenile detention center in Fort Lauderdale is under fire for offering food as a reward for beating up a teenager in its custody.

A 13-year-old identified as A.R. was hospitalized for three weeks after staff at the Broward Juvenile Detention Center offered a “snack bounty” in exchange for beating him up. After A.R. was struck on the head by another teenager, staff left him in a solitary room that was scrubbed with bleach. Inhaling the toxic fumes, A.R. suffered a near-fatal asthma attack that landed him in the hospital. But his mother, Shantell McNair, wasn’t informed about the incident until her son was released 21 days later.

According to Gordon Weekes, the chief public defender of Broward County, A.R. is one of many abuse victims locked away at the detention facility. In a recent letter to the Department of Juvenile Justice, Weekes wrote that at least one kid was shackled and left in a scorching hot van for hours. He also reported that kids are living in a building that wreaks of sewage, which could be the result of toxic chemicals in the facility. Guards also assaulted the boys and denied them urgent medical care in the past.

Weekes believes many of the problems boil down to too few staff and not enough resources to manage so many people.

“They’re frustrated, they’re tired, and it’s a recipe for disaster when you have an overworked staff working with kids who have issues,” he told the Broward Palm Beach New Times. “The staff are overworked and underpaid, and as a result they have a short fuse.”

But the detention center isn’t unique in its treatment of detainees. Broward County as a whole has a well-documented history of abuses in its juvenile facilities. At the nearby Broward Academy for Girls, staff withheld food, sanitary items, and soap from youth in their care. Prior to shutting down in 2013, the Thompson Academy treated food as a reward for good behavior. Youth were beaten, sexually assaulted, denied sleep, and forced to fire their attorneys by staff.

Prosecutors could decide this week whether to file charges against a former Covert Township police officer in an alleged sexual assault.

A source familiar with the investigation said the officer arrested a man for drunken driving on July 9. He then allegedly dropped the man’s girlfriend off at a motel in Paw Paw before locking up the drunk driver at the Van Buren County Jail.

The source said the officer then is accused of returning to the motel while off-duty and sexually assaulting the woman.

Covert Township Police Chief Jay Allen said the alleged victim filed the complaint with his department the day it allegedly happened.

“I looked into it and during the course of looking at the complaint, it was discovered that a possible crime might be committed,” Allen said.

Allen said he immediately turned the case over to Michigan State Police.

“We got a neutral party to investigate so everybody can see there’s no bias one way or another in the investigation,” Allen said.

Allen said the officer, who started working at the department two months ago, resigned shortly after the allegations were made.

Michigan State Police Detective 1st Lt. Chuck Christensen would only tell 24 Hour News 8 that his office started investigating an assault allegation two weeks ago involving a Covert Township police officer. He refused to release additional details.

Van Buren County Prosecutor Michael Bedford said he just received the report on Wednesday. He said he expects to finish his review on Thursday before deciding whether to file charges.

Chief Allen said his department can cover the township with its seven remaining officers:

“We’ve got plenty of coverage. All the shifts are covered.”

An 11-year veteran of a York County police department and former "officer of the year" is on paid leave after being accused of attacking his wife Sunday.

Bryn Lindenmuth, 34, of York, a Southwestern Regional Police officer, was charged with simple assault, false imprisonment and harassment.

West Manchester Township police said they were called to his home after his wife accused him of attacking her and refusing to let her leave.

Lindenmuth was charged and released on $25,000 bail.

The York Dispatch reports that the argument occurred Sunday starting around 10:45 p.m., after his wife got home from a cookout. Lindenmuth is accused of taking his wife's car keys and phone, ripping her clothes and pushing over a recliner in which she was sitting, and trying to lock her in the garage, said the report. She ran to a neighbor's home and called police.

In Southwestern Regional Police Department, where he is employed, Chief Gregory Bean said he was placed on paid leave Sunday when he learned of the charges.

A Cook County judge on Wednesday ordered the release of two men who have spent more than 23 years in prison for murder, but have long insisted they were framed by a Chicago police detective who is at the center of several wrongful conviction probes.

In a brief court hearing Wednesday, Judge LeRoy Martin agreed to the prosecutor's office request to vacate the convictions of Jose Montanez, 49, and Armando Serrano, 44, who were serving 55-year sentences for the 1993 murder Rodrigo Vargas, who was slain in what authorities said was an armed robbery. The men have been behind bars for more than 23 years, and more than a decade after the prosecution's star witness recanted his testimony.

The move by the office of Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez comes after a state appellate court ruling issued last month found that "profoundly alarming acts of misconduct in the underlying investigation and prosecution" led to the men's convictions.

It was an about face for Alvarez who initially resisted a recommendation issued last year by former federal prosecutor Scott Lassar that the prosecutor reopen six cases, including the murder convictions of Montanez and Serrano, that were investigated by police detective Reynaldo Guevara. The cop, who retired more than a decade ago, has faced dozens of allegations of framing or beating confessions out of suspects during his time as detective in a predominantly Latino neighborhood on the city’s Northwest Side. Lassar’s firm, Sidley Austin, was commissioned by Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office to review the allegations.

“Anita Alvarez has indicated a new direction with these Guevara cases,” said Russell Ainsworth, an attorney with the University of Chicago’s Exoneration Project who represented Montanez. “We are now no longer viewing these men as murders but as the innocent men that they are. Their cases need to be reexamined. There are dozens and dozens of people who are innocent and currently incarcerated because Detective Guevara’s conduct.”

Alvarez’s office did not respond to a request for comment on its move to vacate the convictions.

A borough man has been awarded $75,000 for the three weeks he spent in jail as a result of his 2011 arrest for an armed robbery he apparently did not commit.

The June 14 agreement, as reported by NJ Civil Settlements, was reached after Vaughn Molock's arrest at the Mansion Apartments on June 21, 2011. At that time, Molock reportedly got into an argument with a Lindenwold police officer who was assisting in a criminal investigation there.

Molock posted bail a day later, but would soon be in police custody again.

While investigating a report of an armed robbery, Clementon police Officer Joseph McDevit — who is named in the lawsuit — was reportedly told by the robbery victim that Molock was the perpetrator.

What's more, the lawsuit claims Pine Hill police identified Molock to McDevit, making the officer aware of his arrest the day prior, that they had investigated a report of a man with a gun that same day and that the gun matched the description of the one in the June 22 incident.

"Without any support or factual basis, [McDevit] claimed that the alleged victim had identified [Molock] as the perpetrator of an armed robbery," the lawsuit filed in May 2013 reads.

A warrant was issued for Molock's arrest and despite proclaiming his innocence at the Clementon police station when he went to turn himself in on June 24, he was arrested and incarcerated.

According to previous reports, the armed robbery victim was supposed to meet the girlfriend of an acquaintance named "Vaughn" at a Pine Hill apartment complex. Instead, she was set up and robbed by a gunman who was never caught.

According to a report from the Courier-Post, McDevit's application for an arrest warrant contained false information and that the victim was later unable to identify Molock as the perpetrator.

Per the lawsuit, the armed robbery victim later "repeatedly" told police that Molock was not the person who committed the crime. However, Molock remained behind bars for at least three weeks and — according to the lawsuit — was only released after he retained a lawyer.

The armed robbery charge was later dismissed, according to the lawsuit, which alleges Constitutional rights violations and civil rights violations as a result of inadequate training. The lawsuit sought compensatory and punitive damages, attorney's fees, interest, and the cost of suit.

An infuriating video taken by a Texas woman shows a Rosenberg police officer attack her — for her own protection.

The victim, Sydney Tawater was standing in her own doorway when Rosenberg police officer Adam Vasquez became angry that she was filming him.

According to Tawater, officers were fine with her standing outside of her doorway — until she began filming. When officer Vasquez noticed Tawater filming him, he lost it.

“Go inside,” he orders.

“No,” she says.

“Get inside, move!” he says.

“I’m ..” she says.

“She was the one who was being assaulted,” Vasquez says.

“No, I wasn’t assaulted,” she says. “No, I wasn’t assaulted.”

Clearly illustrating the contrived nature of his claim, one officer is seen walking right past Tawater as Vasquez attempts to violate her rights as she was clearly no threat.

When Tawater does not immediately go inside and prostrate herself to the officer’s unlawful order, Vasquez attacks her. The officer then tried to justify this assault by claiming Tawater was a victim of assault.

To protect an assault victim, this public servant assaulted the supposed victim.

Vasquez proceeded to grab the woman half his size, enter her home without her permission, and throw her around like a rag doll — all of this, to protect her.

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The Florida cop who shot an unarmed therapist on the street was actually aiming for the man’s autistic patient, a union official said Wednesday.

The North Miami police officer thought Charles Kinsey — who was lying on his back with his arms in the air — was in danger, his union chief said.

The officer meant to hit the autistic man Kinsey was trying to help — and he fired three times, according to North Miami police.

But he missed the patient, and hit Kinsey instead, the union chief explained. The cop feared the confused autistic patient — holding a toy truck as he sat next to Kinsey on the pavement — might have posed a safety threat, the labor leader said.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards signed a bill Thursday expanding the state’s hate-crimes statute to add the targeting of police officers, firefighters and EMS personnel.

A former northern California police officer was charged Thursday with raping five women while on duty.

Police arrested Noah Winchester, 31, near his Stockton home Thursday morning after the local district attorney charged him with 22 counts of kidnapping, rape and related charges.

San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe charged Winchester with raping the women between July 2013 and October 2015 while he served with the San Mateo Police Department and as an officer for the Los Rios Community College District in Sacramento.

Winchester quit the police department in February after he was put on leave in October when the criminal investigation was launched. San Mateo is about 20 miles south of San Francisco.

A federal grand jury has charged a Richmond police officer with receiving and possessing child pornography last year.

Charles E. Church, 40, had been charged in Richmond courts related to the alleged sexual assault of a juvenile. But those charges were dropped after a federal child pornography charge was filed last month.

A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted Church, accusing him of knowingly receiving child pornography six times from last Oct. 10 to Nov. 4 and with two counts of possession of child pornography.

Church, with the Richmond Police Department for 12 years, is on unpaid administrative leave. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison on each charge. There is a mandatory minimum term of five years if convicted.

The indictment also seeks the forfeiture of his tablet and a laptop computer and two cellphones.

A grand jury indicted a Prince George’s County police officer Thursday after prosecutors accused him of taking upskirt photos of “unsuspecting women,” with some of the images allegedly taken during traffic stops while he was on duty.

Prince George’s police started an investigation last month after an off-duty officer who was at a Sports Authority in Bowie reported that county police officer James Sims had taken an upskirt photo of her, prosecutors said.

“This victim realized what he was trying to do and as she confronted him about it, she pursued him into the parking lot where she saw him get into his marked county police cruiser,” said John Erzen, a spokesman for the county state’s attorney’s office.

A correctional officer with the Marion County Detention Center has been arrested and charged with misconduct in office and assault for reportedly tasing a man who was shackled to a hospital bed, according to arrest warrants.

Frank Anthony Gibbons, 45, of Latta, was arrested on Thursday and charged with misconduct in office and assault and battery 3rd degree, according to arrest warrants from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.

The warrants say that on June 5, a man was taken to Carolinas Hospital System in Florence from the Marion County Detention Center.

Sometime between 2:30 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. Gibbons assaulted the man by tasing him while the man's hands and feet were restrained to the bedrails on a hospital bed, the warrants say.

The warrants go on to say that a SELF agent was able to get statements and witnesses to testify about this happening.

Gibbons was booked into the Florence County Detention Center at around 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, July 21. He was released at around 4:30 p.m. on a $5,000 surety bond for the misconduct charge and a $2,000 bond on the assault charge.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agreed to pay $475,000 to a New Mexico woman who accused agents of forcing her to undergo body cavity probes and then got charged for the exams, civil liberties advocates said Thursday.

The settlement in the case, which drew national attention three years ago, also will require new training for hundreds of customs officers, American Civil Liberties Union affiliates in Texas and New Mexico said.

The woman, a 54-year-old U.S. citizen, was "brutally" searched by agents in December 2012 after a drug-sniffing dog jumped on her at an El Paso checkpoint, according to a 2013 lawsuit. The woman, who was not named, was returning from a visit with a recently deported family friend in Cuidad Juarez, Mexico.

Agents strip-searched her and did cavity searches but found no evidence of drugs, court documents said.

he City Council on Tuesday refused to pay $475,000 to settle two lawsuits filed by people who allege that Paterson police officers used excessive force on them.

One councilman, Michael Jackson, opposed the settlements by citing recent incidents around the country, saying there has been an “outcry” demanding a greater degree of accountability of law enforcement officers. Jackson said Paterson officials have been too willing to settle lawsuits against city police officers involving “the same issues but nothing is being addressed.”

“The department is not being held accountable,” said Jackson.

Three of Jackson’s colleagues – Shahin Khalique, William McKoy and Luis Velez – said the city would risk paying more to the accusers if the cases went to trial. Khalique and Velez both said the city didn’t have enough evidence to win.

But Jackson was joined by three other council members – Maritza Davila, Alex Mendez and Andre Sayegh – in opposing settlement. Councilman Kenneth Morris abstained, saying it was because he was not present for the hour-long closed-door meeting during which city lawyers explained the case to the council.

The larger of the two proposed settlements – one for $435,000 – involved allegations against a city police officer, Mahmoud Rabboh, who had been indicted on federal false arrest charges in an unrelated case in 2013. Months after the indictment, the criminal charges against Rabboh were dropped and he returned to works as a city police officer. The city agreed to pay $23,000 to settle a lawsuit involving that case.

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A former Oregon state crime lab scientist faces was charged Thursday with federal crimes for obtaining controlled substances by misrepresentation, fraud and deception.

Federal investigators allege that Nika Larsen used her position as a forensic scientist to steal pills from evidence submitted by law enforcement. Larsen tried to hide her tracks by replacing stolen drugs with fake ones, according to court documents.

Larsen most recently worked at the state crime lab in Bend, one of five labs throughout the state. She was placed on leave last fall and had worked for other OSP offices since 2007. After the allegations surfaced, Gov. Kate Brown created a work group to look into the Oregon State Police Crime Lab.

The thefts are alleged to have happened between December 2013 and August 2015. Larsen began working for OSP at the Pendleton crime lab in 2007 and started at the Bend lab in 2012. A number of other analysts in other OSP crime labs were also investigated after Larsen’s actions came to light last fall.

Hundreds of criminal cases that involved evidence analyzed by Larsen are under review by the Deschutes County District Attorney’s Office. District Attorney John Hummel has already set aside convictions in several cases involving evidence that Larsen may have touched or analyzed, and hundreds of cases remain to be reviewed by his office.

Larsen is accused of stealing morphine, hydrocodone, methadone, oxycodone, tramadol and hydromorphone, according to a document filed in U.S. District Court.

A prosecutor says an off-duty Las Vegas police officer had a blood-alcohol percentage 50 percent higher than the legal limit when he crashed his personal SUV several times last weekend on a busy stretch of Interstate 15.

Prosecutor Brian Rutledge said Thursday that Officer Antonio Munoz Jr.’s blood-alcohol percentage was 0.12 percent when he was arrested early Saturday morning after exiting the freeway near the Las Vegas Strip and downtown.

Munoz’s attorney, Joshua Tomsheck, didn’t immediately respond to messages.

Munoz was charged Wednesday with three felony leaving the scene of an accident charges that each carry a mandatory two years in prison if he’s convicted.

Rutledge says Munoz also is expected to face felony drunk-driving charges once prosecutors receive medical reports of people hurt in the crashes.