Florida cop who shot unarmed therapist was aiming for his patient

New York Daily News

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An unarmed Miami-area man trying to calm his autistic patient was shot in the leg by police even though he had his hands up, he said Wednesday.

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Florida cop who shot unarmed therapist was aiming for his autistic patient — who was holding a toy truck

The Florida cop who shot an unarmed therapist on the street was actually aiming for the man’s autistic patient, a union official said Wednesday.
The North Miami police officer thought Charles Kinsey — who was lying on his back with his arms in the air — was in danger, his union chief said.
The officer meant to hit the autistic man Kinsey was trying to help — and he fired three times, according to North Miami police.
But he missed the patient, and hit Kinsey instead, the union chief explained. The cop feared the confused autistic patient — holding a toy truck as he sat next to Kinsey on the pavement — might have posed a safety threat, the labor leader said.

The officer, whose name has not yet been released, could face charges if his actions are deemed criminal.
“I took this job to save lives and help people,” the cop said in a statement released by the union. “I did what I had to do in a split second to accomplish that and hate to hear others paint me as something I’m not.”
North Miami Police Chief Gary Eugene on Thursday 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 following the news conference.

“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.

Kinsey said he had his arms in the air when the cop fired at him.
(Hilton Napoleon II)

“I assure you we will get all the answers," he added.
The officer, who was placed on administrative leave, regrets the error and wishes Kinsey a speedy recovery, the police union chief said.
Kinsey, 47, has been recuperating in a local hospital from the gunshot wound he suffered Monday.
The behavioral therapist said he was comforting his patient, who ran away from the group home where Kinsey works.
When North Miami police arrived on the scene, the black therapist feared cops would mistake the 27-year-old patient’s toy truck for a weapon.
Kinsey lay on his back on the street and put his arms in the air to show his hands were empty.
“I’m going to the ground, just like this with my hands up,” he told a local news station from his hospital room as he raised his arms above his head.
“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.’”

Therapist Charles Kinsey was shot by police while he was trying to help his patient with autism.
(WSVN)

But the cops — who had drawn their weapons — didn’t put them away, even when Kinsey shouted that he was a therapist who worked at the nearby group home.
He also shouted warnings that his patient was autistic and held a toy — not a gun.
Kinsey thought it was enough to keep him safe, but after several long minutes, one of the cops shot him anyway, striking him in the leg.
“As long as I’ve got my hands up, they’re not going to shoot me,” Kinsey said. “This is what I’m thinking: ‘They're not going to shoot me.’ Wow, was I wrong.”
When cops approached the bleeding, wounded man, the therapist asked the officer who pulled the trigger why he’d been shot.
“He said, ‘I don't know,’” Kinsey recalled.
The autistic patient was unharmed.
Police said the officer involved in the shooting was responding to a 911 call about a man with a gun threatening to kill himself.

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Kinsey said he believed the cop thought the autistic patient was the suspect — and that the toy truck was a gun.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the Justice Department was aware of the police shooting and working with local law enforcement to gather as many facts as possible about what occurred.
But it was too early to tell if the Justice Department would open its own civil rights investigation, she added.
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, La.
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.
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