Kinsey, who works at the MacTown Panther Group Homes, said the man with autism ran away, and he was attempting to help him when the police encounter unfolded. And he didn’t say whether the officer was aiming at the 23-year-old autistic man playing with a toy truck while sitting in the roadway, or if he had set his sites on the victim, Charles Kinsey.
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Mr Kinsey, 47, said he was trying to coax his 27-year-old patient back to a facility from which he had wandered.
Police said they responded after reports that a disturbed man was walking around with a gun threatening to kill himself on Monday.
North Miami Police Chief Gary Eugene addressed the public Thursday morning for the first time since one of his officers shot an unarmed mental healthcare worker while he was caring for a patient.
But the North Miami police officer who shot Kinsey was actually trying to protect him, and meant to shoot the autistic man next to him, but missed, the head of the police union said Thursday.
“The movement of the white individual looked like he was getting ready to discharge a firearm into Mr. Kinsey”, said Miami-Dade police union boss John Rivera in a press conference today, attended by WSVN.
The same video shows Miami Police fire three shots and shoot Kinsey in the leg.
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.
Police have not released the name or race of the officer who shot him but said he had been placed on administrative leave. 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.
During the incident, Mr Kinsey was more anxious about his patient than himself, he told reporters. And while several said they were relieved Kinsey is still alive, they couldn’t ignore the inescapable reality of racism in law enforcement. I’d say about 20, about 20 minutes it took the rescue squad to get there.
“As long as I’ve got my hands up, they’re not gonna shoot me, that’s what I’m thinking”, Kinsey said.
“But I guess with all the shootings that are going on, they are nervous and shook up”, Matthews said. “I assure you we will get all the answers“.
Kinsey told WSVN in a hospital interview that he was stunned that he was shot on Monday afternoon because his hands were in the air. Kinsey was shot in the leg and no video of the actual shooting act was apparently immediately available.
At some point during the on-scene negotiation, one of the responding officers fired his weapon, striking the employee, police said.
The shooting comes after two black men were killed at the hands of police in Louisiana and Minnesota. “Wow, was I wrong”, he said.
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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. “And in his words to me, he said, ‘I don’t know'”.
