Multiple media outlets reported Saturday that Arnaldo Rios’ mother, Gladys Soto, said during a Saturday news conference that she is anxious about the safety of her son.
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“All he has is a toy truck… a toy truck”. If that hard-to-believe defense were true, why was the victim, who had done nothing wrong and followed all police instructions, handcuffed and left to bleed on the hot street for 20 minutes after he’d been shot?
A USA congresswoman whose district includes North Miami told reporters she was shocked by the video that shows the scene before the shooting. He said he has never had a problem with North Miami police.
Kinsey’s attorney, Hilton Napoleon II, said he is already talking to North Miami city officials about a monetary settlement for his client, who is married with five children. Both men were seen flat on the ground, with two officers standing near them. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office are involved in investigating the incident.
“This is like a nightmare to me”, Democratic Rep. Frederica Wilson said.
“This is not typical of North Miami”, she said. “This can not happen again”. Police arrived in response to a call, possibly unrelated, of a man threatening to shoot himself.
John Rivera, the president of the Dade County Police Benevolent Association, said this week that the officers on the scene “saw the white male nearly on top of Mr. Kinsey, who had his hands up and who had his knees up, and to the officers, it looked like the white male was about to shoot Mr. Kinsey”, Rivera said.
“As long as I’ve got my hands up, they’re not gonna shoot me, that’s what I’m thinking”, he said.
“This wasn’t a mistake in the sense that the officer shot the wrong guy or he thought that Kinsey was the bad guy”, Rivera said in a press conference Thursday.
Authorities haven’t released the name of the officer who opened fire. It then briefly shows the aftermath of the shooting. While the video does not show Kinsey being shot, it clearly shows him on the ground complying with police. He would not say who gave him the video. “Shut up!” responds the patient, who is sitting cross-legged in the road.
“Without changes in policy and improved training of officers, we will very likely see more needless shootings and deaths at the hands of police”, he said in a statement. I’m unarmed, he’s an autistic guy. As officers approached, Kinsey laid down on the sidewalk, put his hands in the air, and assured police his patient had nothing but a toy truck in his hands.
Family attorney Matthew Dietz says the 27-year-old has been in distress since the shooting of Charles Kinsey on Monday and criticized the lack of police training when handling someone with mental illness.
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Kinsey said he asked an officer why he was shot and the officer said “I don’t know”.
