Readers like you keep news free for everyone.
More than 5,000 readers have already pitched in to keep free access to The Journal.
For the price of one cup of coffee each week you can help keep paywalls away.
North Miami
Police shoot unarmed man as he lies on the ground with his hands up
“And I’m saying to them, ‘Sir, why did you shoot me?’ And his words to me, he said, ‘I don’t know.’”
A BEHAVIOURAL THERAPIST was shot by Miami police as he lay on the ground with his hands up.
Charles Kinsey was attempting to calm an autistic patient of his who had run away from the group home Kinsey works at on Monday when police arrived.
They had been alerted to the presence of a man with a gun walking around the neighbourhood threatening to take his own life. However, Kinsey says the patient was merely holding a toy truck.
Kinsey told WSVN-TV that the officer who shot him told him he didn’t know why he had done so.
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.”.
“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.’
Kinsey was then handcuffed and put on his stomach before being taken to hospital with non life-threatening injuries.
Video which emerged last night shows Kinsey explaining the situation to officers shortly before the shooting.
He tells them that he is a behavioural therapist, that the man with him is autistic and is heard pleading with the patient to lie on his stomach.
The officer who shot Kinsey has been placed on leave and an investigation is underway.
Read: Cruz shocks Republican convention by refusing to endorse Trump
Read: Man who shot dead three police officers was a US Marine who served in Iraq
