Police are investigating
after an officer shot a therapist who was looking after an autistic man
while he was lying in the street with his hands up.
Charles Kinsey, was trying to get his 27-year-old
patient to return to a treatment facility when police arrived in
response to reports of a man threatening to shoot himself.
Video
shot by a witness who saw the scene unfold shows the 47-year-old Mr
Kinsey lying in the street on his back and with his hands in the air,
while his patient plays with a toy truck and screams at him to "shut
up".
Mr Kinsey can be heard shouting to the officers, who are
armed with rifles: "All he has is a toy truck. I'm a behaviour therapist
at a group home."
He also urges his patient to comply with the officers: "Rinaldo,
please be still, Rinaldo. Sit down Rinaldo, lay on your stomach."
Moments later, shots were fired and Mr Kinsey was hit in the leg.
"It
was so surprising. It was like a mosquito bite," he later told WSVN-TV,
adding that he had called out there was no need for firearms.
North
Miami Assistant Police Chief, Neal Cuevas, told The Miami Herald that
police ordered Mr Kinsey and his patient to lie on the ground before an
officer fired three times, striking Kinsey in the leg. No weapon was
found.
Mr Kinsey is a member of the Circle of Brotherhood
collective who do good deeds for the community and the group have
demanded answers from the
police.
"We found out bits and pieces and we're still finding things out," said member Lyle Muhammad. "So we'd just like to go see him."
The
group say the North Miami Police Department is the latest law
enforcement agency that needs to be called to task for the shooting of
an unarmed black man.
The ethnicity of the officer that fired the shots has yet to be released by police.
Mr Kinsey is recovering from his injuries in Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital.
His wife told WSVN-TV: "Right now, I am just grateful that he is alive, and he is able to tell his story."
abcnews.com
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