North Miami Assistant Police Chief Neal Cuevas said the incident happened when officers responded to a call that a man with a gun was walking around threatening to shoot himself, the Miami Herald reported. A call to 911 said that there had been a man threatening suicide with a gun in the street, however, the man, the patient from the home, only had a toy truck.
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A Florida police officer shot a therapist in the leg who was looking after a man with autism while he was lying in the street with his hands up.
However, when the autistic man didn’t comply with police orders to lie down, a Miami officer reportedly fired his assault rifle three times, hitting Kinsey once in the leg.
Video of the incident, obtained by both news outlets, shows Kinsey lying on the ground on his back with both arms raised over his head while the autistic man sits cross-legged on the road next to Kinsey.
Kinsey, 47, told Florida TV station WSVN-Channel 7 that as he lay on the ground he told police that he was unarmed. “It was so surprising”. He said he couldn’t believe the officer shot him while he had his hands in the air, especially considering the information he provided.
The police department said it is investigating the issue, and added that the unnamed officer responsible for shooting Kinsey was placed on leave.
Charles Kinsey can be seen lying on the ground with his hands up. Kinsey said while his hands were up, an officer shot him.
“We don’t know enough about it at this point in time”, she said, when asked whether federal authorities would begin their own investigation.
The video posted on websites does not include the moment of the shooting.
Charles Kinsey was in the street to retrieve an autistic man who’d wandered away from the center where he lives. However, the police department refused to identify the police officer responsible for shooting Kinsey.
“I was more anxious about him than myself”, Kinsey told CNN affiliate WSVN.
“Please be still. get down. lay on your stomach”, Kinsey says in the video. His name has not been released as yet.
Kinsey is now recovering at a nearby hospital. “I thought it was a mosquito bite”. I was really more anxious about [my patient] than myself. “Another officer asked, ‘Why did you shoot this guy?’ and the shooting officer said he didn’t know why he shot him”.
“Physically he will recover but mentally he felt like he did everything he could possibly do and that wasn’t good enough”, Napoleon said.
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Mr Kinsey’s lawyer said that Miami City is discussing a settlement and urged the police to “come out more and admit fault, that would probably go a long way”.
