The Florida police officer who shot an unarmed behavioral therapist was aiming for the autistic patient the therapist was trying to protect, police union officials said, according to the New York Daily News.
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A North Miami behavior therapist trying to help a patient with autism says he was shot in the leg by cops responding to the scene – even after he laid down on the pavement and put his hands in the air. An officer killed a 32-year-old black man, Philando Castile, at a traffic stop in the midwestern U.S. state of Minnesota.
Officials said police were on the scene responding to a call about a man with a gun.
“Mr. Kinsey did everything right, let’s be real clear about that”, Rivera said. “That’s all it is”.
“There is no justification, heightened alert or not, to shoot an unarmed man laying on the ground with his hands in the air who is telling you that no one has a gun and the person here is autistic”, Napoleon added. Kinsey, 47, got down on the pavement and put his hands up while trying to get the patient to comply, North Miami Assistant Police Chief Neal Cuevas told The Miami Herald.
He said he tried to tell an officer that the autistic man had a toy truck but she told him to get back.
“When I went to the ground, I’m going to the ground just like this here with my hands up”, Mr Kinsey told local media from his hospital bed. Telling them again there is no need for firearms. The patient was seated, cross-legged, holding a toy truck.
It was a stunning admission from the police officer and from John Rivera, who heads Miami-Dade’s Police Benevolent Association.
“I realise there are many questions about what happened on Monday night”.
“I was really more anxious about him [the patient] more than myself because… once I’ve got my hands up they’re not going to shoot me, this is what I’m thinking, they’re not going to shoot me”, Kinsey said.
“I think it’s a bogus explanation, I think it’s not acceptable, it’s an excuses and excuses of tools of incompetence”, protester Ade Abisogun said.
The officer in question of shooting has not yet been named and is now in administrative leave.
Kinsey only wants to help people and is perplexed as to why officers fired. “Wow, was I wrong”, he told a television station.
At the press conference, police chief Eugene refused to identify the officers involved and answer reporters’ questions. “I assure you, we’ll get all the answers”, the police chief told reporters Thursday. Protests have erupted in major USA cities during the past year and a half, as widely viewed videos of police shootings of black men drew attention to long-standing issues of race, policing and lack of accountability for officers. “Freezing. But he was still shot”, she said. “They pull their Taser to calm them down”, said Travis Haynes, 35, of Orlando, who is black.
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Earlier this month, black shooters opened fire at the police in Dallas and Baton Rouge, killing a total of eight officers, including one African American.
