The shooting by police of an unarmed black man as he lay on the ground with his hands in the air in North Miami, Florida, raised calls on Thursday for US police to review their training programs and policies.
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At the time of the incident he was trying to get his 27-year-old patient back to a facility safely.
According to the North Miami Police Department, officers were dispatched to the scene of the shooting after receiving a 911 call about a man with a gun threatening suicide.
Cell phone video shows Kinsey lying on his back with his arms in the air pleading with officers not to fire.
Moments later Kinsey says he was shot in the leg by one of the officers despite still keeping his hands in the air.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch says the Justice Department is aware of the police shooting in North Miami of a black therapist who was trying to calm an autistic patient in the middle of the street. The officer wanted to hit the autistic man, who was being helped by Kinsey.
The officer has been placed on administrative leave, which is standard.
North Miami Police have not released the officer’s name, but an investigation into the incident continues. Rivera said the officer thought that the autistic man was attempting to harm Kinsey.
Speaking from his hospital bed while being treated for a gunshot wound to his leg, Mr Kinsey said: “As long as I’ve got my hands up, they’re not going to shoot me”.
Kinsey kept trying to communicate with the officers saying, “All he has is a toy truck”.
Rivera’s statement seems to contradict video of the incident in which Kinsey can be heard identifying himself and his patient and saying his patient was holding a toy. That shooting, captured on cellphone video, provoked widespread protests about police treatment of the black community. Kinsey said that man was one of his patients, Rinaldo, who has autism. “I assure you well will get all the answers”. He added the officer who shot him “wishes nothing but the best for Mr Kinsey and the officer is praying for his speedy recovery as are we”. It’s not clear if there is video of the actual shooting and what happened between the two videos provided by the lawyer. The shooting, which Kinsey survived, is under investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the state’s attorney’s office. Kinsey also said that after he was shot, he was flipped over and handcuffed. “What the officer didn’t know (were) the white individual’s intentions”.
People on Twitter expressed how upset they were by the shooting, particularly given the recent police killings of two black men, Anton Sterling and Philando Castille, earlier this month.
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U.S. congresswoman Frederica Wilson, whose district includes north Miami, said it was a “nightmare” situation but argued it wasn’t typical of the city, which she described as a “melting pot”.
