Miami, FL – A black therapist who was trying to calm an autistic man in the middle of the street says he was shot by police even though he had his hands in the air and repeatedly told them that no one was armed.
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The moments before the shooting were recorded on cellphone video and show Charles Kinsey lying on the ground with his arms raised, talking to his patient and police throughout the standoff with officers, who appeared to have them surrounded.
“As long as I’ve got my hands up, they’re not going to shoot me. This is what I’m thinking. They’re not going to shoot me,” he told WSVN-TV (http://bit.ly/2ac7zm1 ) from his hospital bed, where he was recovering from a gunshot wound to his leg. “Wow, was I wrong.”
The shooting comes amid weeks of violence involving police. Five officers were killed in Dallas two weeks ago and three law enforcement officers were gunned down Sunday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Before those shootings, a black man, Alton Sterling, 37, was fatally shot during a scuffle with two white officers at a convenience store. In Minnesota, 32-year-old Philando Castile, who was also black, was shot to death during a traffic stop. Cellphone videos captured Sterling’s killing and aftermath of Castile’s shooting, prompting nationwide protests over the treatment of blacks by police.
At a news conference Thursday, North Miami Police Chief Gary Eugene said the investigation had been turned over to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the office of the state’s attorney. He called it a “very sensitive matter” and promised a transparent investigation, but he refused to identify the officer or answer reporters’ questions.
“I realize there are many questions about what happened on Monday night. You have questions, the community has questions, we as a city, we as a member of this police department and I also have questions,” he said. “I assure you we will get all the answers.”
The chief said officers responded following reports of a man with a gun threatening to kill himself, and the officers arrived “with that threat in mind” — but no gun was recovered.
Kinsey, 47, said he was trying to coax his 27-year-old patient back to a facility from which he had wandered. Police ordered Kinsey and the patient, who was sitting in the street playing with a toy truck, to lie on the ground.
“Lay down on your stomach,” Kinsey says to his patient in the video, which was shot from a distance and provided to the Miami Herald (http://hrld.us/2ahReMa) on Wednesday. “Shut up!” responds the patient, who is sitting cross-legged in the road, playing with his toy.
“He has a toy truck in his hand! A toy truck!” Kinsey says to officers who have their guns drawn. Kinsey said he was more worried about his patient than himself.
An officer later fired three times, striking Kinsey in the leg, assistant police chief Neal Cuevas told the newspaper.
“I’m telling them again, ‘Sir, there is no need for firearms. I’m unarmed, he’s an autistic guy. He got a toy truck in his hand,” Kinsey said.
“When he shot me, it was so surprising … 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,'” Kinsey said.
After the shooting, Kinsey said he asked an officer why he was shot and the officer said “‘I don’t know.'”
Attorney General Loretta Lynch told reporters the Justice Department was aware of the shooting and was working with local law enforcement to gather all of the facts and to decide how to proceed.
“We don’t know enough about it at this point in time,” she said, when asked whether federal authorities would begin their own investigation.
U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson represents the area and said she was in shock after watching the video.
“From what I saw, he was lying on the ground with his hands up. Freezing. But he was still shot,” she said.
“This is not typical of North Miami,” she said. “We’re not accustomed to this tension. … This cannot happen again.”
The officer has been placed on administrative leave, which is standard.
Kinsey’s attorney, Hilton Napoleon, provided the cellphone video to the Herald.
In an interview with The Associated Press, he declined to say from whom he had obtained the video.
The video does not show the moment of the shooting, and Napoleon said there was about a two-minute gap in which the person who shot the video had switched off, thinking nothing more noteworthy would happen. It then briefly shows the aftermath of the shooting.
What is wrong the police? There is something wrong when something like this can happen.
I can’t wait to read the usual racist ravings from the resident Trump thugs here. This is yet one more instance of cops who are either racist or incompetent (or both) being quick on the trigger. Boochie, Kenyaninthewhitehouse, Schwartzie, Mark Levin, Sandra M., Esther, and all the other small minded haters: let’s see how you’ll twist facts and logic to fit your worlview. But be sure to change into your white robes first.
There goes the local CVS!
The people might start getting nervous of having more chances getting hurt or killed by police than a thug!
Apparently helping autistic people is a crime unless you’re white.
Another example of a black professional, a special needs therapist, almost being killed by police for being black. And he was trying to help the autistic man in the street!
This has nothing, I repea, nnothingto do with racism. This seems more like an incompetent cop having his gun go off not knowing what he did.
At least two other officer-involved shootings have followed a similar pattern in recent years, with guns being pulled on unarmed black men and discharged either “accidentally” or for reasons not entirely known to the shooter.
In neither case were the victims as fortunate as Kinsey. In 2009, Officer Johannes Mehserle allegedly mistook his firearm for a stun gun when he drew it and pointed it at Oscar Grant’s back. It was New Year’s Eve in Oakland, California. Mehserle, a BART police officer, was responding to reports of an altercation at the city’s Fruitvale train stop when he and fellow officers encountered Grant and a group of his friends. Mehserle pulled the trigger, killing 22-year-old Grant, who was handcuffed and lying face down on the train platform at the time. Mehserle was eventually convicted of involuntary manslaughter and served one year in prison.
Vigilante Robert Bates also made a mistake. The 74-year-old insurance executive shot and killed Eric Harris, a 44-year-old black man, during a sting operation staged by Tulsa County, Oklahoma, sheriffs in April 2015. Bates was acting in his capacity as an armed reserve sheriff’s deputy. He is serving 4 years for the crime.