A black therapist named Charles Kinsey was shot by the police while caring for his autistic patient in Miami on Monday. By now you’ve probably seen the video of Charles Kinsey on the concrete, hands outstretched toward the sky as he tries to convince North Miami Police officers that neither he nor his autistic patient carrying a toy truck have a gun.
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The video shows Mr Kinsey lying down while trying to get his patient to comply.
The police officers involved in the shooting were responding to reports of an armed man threatening suicide, North Miami’s police chief Gary Eugene told reporters on Thursday.
An unarmed black man was shot and injured by police in Florida while he had his hands in the air – a shooting that had “no justification”, the injured man’s attorney said Thursday.
Rivera said the police officer opened fire because he thought the white individual, whom they later learned is a man with autism, was going to harm Kinsey. A yet unidentified police officer shot Kinsey in the leg. Kinsey was left bleeding on the ground, then handcuffed and later sent to the hospital.
In Florida, Kinsey’s attorney, Hilton Napoleon, provided a cellphone video to the Herald on Wednesday taken moments before the shooting.
Kinsey told reporters that he was more concerned about his patient’s well being during the incident, because he assumed officers would not shoot him if he had his hands up.
She said there have been a few complaints about illegal traffic stops. Rivera said the officer “was trying to save the life of Mr. Kinsey and feels awful that his aim missed and struck Mr. Kinsey”.
Many noted that despite how tragic the situation is, society may try to criminalize Kinsey, as has been a routine when black people are shot by police. “I am a behavior therapist at a group home”.
The group home manager, Clint Bower, says police were told something else.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the incident.
“If she would have told the other officers, maybe they wouldn’t have shot”, said Matthews, a 73-year-old African-American. “When I went to the ground, I went to the ground with my hands up”, Kinsey said, “and I am laying there just like this”. Kinsey pleads with the seated autistic man to lie down, but he refuses. “It was like a mosquito bite, and when it hit me, I’m like, ‘I still got my hands in the air, and I said, ‘No I just got shot!” After the state’s investigation is done, the department will do its internal investigation. Video footage captures the moments before the shooting, and its aftermath, but not the shooting itself. “We’re not accustomed to this tension”.
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The officer has been placed on administrative leave, which is standard. They were responding to a 911 call that said a man with a weapon wanted to kill himself.
