A black therapist named Charles Kinsey was shot by the police while caring for his autistic patient in Miami on Monday. “I’d say about 20 minutes it took the rescue squad to get there”, Kinsey said. “Wow, was I wrong”.
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It was tense exchange, and protestors eventually went back outside and hurled questions at police officers who came out to talk.
The shooting comes amid heightened tension in the USA after gunmen killed eight law enforcement officers in the southern cities of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Dallas, Texas.
A day later, on 6 July, another black man, 32-year-old Philando Castile, was killed in Minnesota when a police officer pulled him over.
Kinsey works at the home, which is operated by the Miami Achievement Center for the Developmentally Disabled.
In response to the social media firestorm that erupted over video of the police-involved shooting of an unarmed man earlier this week, officials released a fact sheet on Thursday that detailed what they said happened. “Please, do not shoot me”, Kinsey told WSVN-Channel 7. “The video clearly shows him with his hands as high in the air as he can possibly get them”.
Around 5pm on Monday, a 911 caller reported a man in the street with a gun who was threatening to kill himself, according to North Miami police. Police ordered Mr Kinsey and the patient, who was sitting in the street playing with a toy truck, to lie on the ground.
“Shut up”, responds the patient.
He can be heard telling officers he has no weapon, and that the other man is autistic and has a toy truck.
Turns out, the victim is indeed, a behavior therapist at a nearby group home and the man sitting next to him is the autistic client who had wandered away from the home.
“As long as I’ve got my hands up, they’re not gonna shoot me, that’s what I’m thinking”, Kinsey said. I’m unarmed, this is an autistic guy.
“All he has is a toy truck”, Mr Kinsey shouted to police.
Despite Mr. Kinsey’s attempt to defuse the situation, officers fired multiple shots, one of them striking his leg, NY Times reports.
Three shots ring out, one of which hit Kinsey.
Speaking to reporters from his hospital bed after he was shot, Mr Kinsey told WSVN TV: “I’m going to the ground, just like this with my hands up.
On Thursday, US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the Justice Department was looking into the case. “Was he adequately trained?” she said. “We’re not accustomed to this tension”. The county prosecutor’s office said in a statement that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement was investigating the incident, after which the prosecutor’s office would conduct its own investigation to determine “whether the actions of the shooting officer constitute a criminal act that can be proven beyond and to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt”.
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U.S. police shootings: How many die each year? “I believe if we do what we are paid to do, there would be no need for the bridge”. That officer has been placed on administrative leave, as is the standard procedure.
