An unarmed black man trying to help an autistic man was shot and wounded by Florida police while lying on the ground with his arms raised in the air and pleading with officers to hold their fire.
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In the cellphone video posted by WSVN on Wednesday, a pair of police officers are seen approaching the two men from afar with rifles drawn.
The officer responded to a 911 call about a man walking around with a gun supposedly threatening suicide.
“I was more anxious about him than myself”, Kinsey told CNN affiliate WSVN.
“I am asking the officer, I said, ‘sir, please don’t shoot me”.
He can be heard telling officers he has no weapon, and that the other man is autistic and has a toy truck.
Moments later Kinsey says he was shot in the leg by one of the officers despite still keeping his hands in the air.
On Thursday, three days after he was shot, 47-year-old Charles Kinsey remained at Jackson Memorial Hospital suffering from a gunshot wound to his leg.
“As long as I got my hands up, they’re not going to shoot me – this is what I’m thinking”, Kinsey told WSVN-Channel 7 from a bed at Jackson Memorial Hospital. Rivera said the officer, a member of North Miami’s SWAT team, was devastated by the shooting and was acting only to try and save Kinsey. The New York Daily News reported that the state’s attorney has joined the investigation.
At some point, one of the officers discharged his weapon, authorities said. “Freezing. But he was still shot”, she said.
During the incident, Mr Kinsey was more anxious about his patient than himself, he told reporters.
“This is not a case of police abuse”, Rivera said. The camera pans to the right to show two police officers apparently aiming guns at the pair from behind utility poles.
Many noted that despite how tragic the situation is, society may try to criminalize Kinsey, as has been a routine when black people are shot by police. The shooting, which Kinsey survived, is under investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the state’s attorney’s office. “He got a toy truck in his hand”, Mr Kinsey said.
“I’m going to the ground, just like this with my hands up”.
Ironically, Kinsey said he didn’t have any fear that he would be shot. Moments later, in a live Facebook stream, his girlfriend said the officer had asked for Castile’s license and shot him when he moved to retrieve it.
U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson spoke to reporters after a news conference with police on Thursday.
The shooting she said, isn’t typical of the city, which she described as a “melting pot”.
That shooting, captured on cellphone video, provoked widespread protests about police treatment of the black community.
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“Physically he will recover but mentally he felt like he did everything he could possibly do and that wasn’t good enough”, Napoleon said.
