An unarmed caretaker for an autistic man was shot by a North Miami police officer — while his hands were in the air.
Police were responding to a report of a man threatening another man with a gun when the incident happened on Tuesday.
Charles Kinsey, a behavioral therapist, was calmly talking to his autistic patient who had run away from a group home.
When police arrived, Kinsey assumed the position that every black man in America knows all too well — arms held high in a non-threatening gesture.
Kinsey told the police his patient had a truck in his hand — not a gun. But the police advanced on him with guns drawn anyway.
“All he has is a toy truck. A toy truck,” he told police. “I’m a behavior therapist at a group home,” Kinsey said before turning to speak to the patient. “Rinaldo, please be still, Rinaldo. Sit down, Rinaldo. Lay on your stomach.”
“I’m going to the ground, just like this with my hands up. And I’m laying down here just like this. And I’m telling him again, ‘Sir, there’s no need for firearms. I’m unarmed, this is an autistic guy. He has a toy truck in his hand,'” Kinsey told WSVN.
“When he shot me, it was so surprising. It was like a mosquito bite. And when he hit me, I’m like, I still got my hands in the air. I said, ‘You know, I just got shot.’ And I’m saying to them, ‘Sir, why did you shoot me?’ And his words to me, he said, ‘I don’t know.'”
Video footage from a local TV station shows the officer handcuffing Kinsey and flipping him over, possibly searching for the phantom firearm.
The cop was placed on paid administrative leave — standard procedure in every police-involved shooting of unarmed civilians.
The local state attorney’s office has joined the investigation, according to WSVN-TV.
Kinsey’s wife Joyce told WSVN she’s just glad he is alive and able to tell his side of the story.
“I was really more worried about him than myself, because as long as I’ve got my hands up, they’re not going to shoot me,” Kinsey told WSVN. “This is what I’m thinking, ‘They’re not going to shoot me.’ Wow, was I wrong.”
