A behavioral therapist trying to help his autistic patient was shot by police while lying on the ground with his arms raised in the air. A video recorded on a cell phone shows the moments before the shooting in North Miami, Florida.
The victim, Charles Kinsey, who is black, is recovering in the hospital, WSVN-TV reports. The news station obtained the video of the Monday shooting on Wednesday.
Kinsey’s attorney, Harold Napoleon, also provided the full video to the Miami Herald. You can watch it here.
The shooting itself was not caught on the cell phone camera.
North Miami Police say they responded to the area of Northeast 14th Avenue and Northeast 127th Street for a report of an armed man threatening suicide, WPLG-TV reports
Kinsey, 47, told WSVN the “armed man” was his 23-year-old autistic patient, who had run away from a nearby mental health center, where Kinsey works, and was confused. He was not armed, but was holding a toy truck, Kinsey said.
In the video Kinsey can be heard trying to tell the officers that.
“All he has is a toy truck. A toy truck. I am a behavioral therapist at a group home,” Kinsey can be heard saying.
He is also heard in the video trying to calm down the patient, Rinaldo, asking him to stop moving and to get onto his stomach. Kinsey told WSVN he was more afraid police would shoot the autistic man.
North Miami Police issued a statement about the shooting:
There is preliminary information that North Miami Police Officers were dispatched to the scene after a 911 call was received of an armed male suspect threatening suicide. Arriving officers attempted to negotiate with two men on the scene, one of whom was later identified as suffering from autism. The other man was later identified as an employee of an assisted living facility. At some point during the on-scene negotiation, one of the responding officers discharged his weapon, striking the employee.
The shooting remains under investigation. The officer, who has not been named, has been placed on administrative leave. No weapons were found at the scene, police said.
