This is absolute Police brutality and racism..
Police
in South Florida Thursday said they were investigating an officer who shot and
wounded an autistic man's black caretaker, as video emerged apparently showing
the caretaker lying down with his arms raised before being shot.
Police
were responding to reports of a man threatening to shoot himself on Monday, North
Miami Assistant Police Chief Neal Cuevas told The Miami Herald.
Officers
arrived to find 47-year-old Charles Kinsey, a therapist who works with people
with disabilities, according to WSVN-TV. His 27-year-old patient reportedly ran
away from a group home. The therapist claimed he was trying to return his
patient to the facility.
Police
ordered Kinsey and the patient, who was sitting in the street playing with a
toy truck, to lie on the ground. The video shows Kinsey lying down and putting
his hands up while trying to get his patient to comply.
An
officer then fired three times, striking Kinsey in the leg, Cuevas said. No
weapon was found.
The
latest shooting comes amid weeks of violence involving police. Three law
enforcement officers were fatally shot and three others wounded Sunday in Baton
Rouge, Louisiana, by a shooter whom police also gunned down. Two weeks earlier,
two white officers in Baton Rouge killed a black man, Alton Sterling, 37, on
July 5 during a scuffle at a convenience store. That shooting, captured on
cellphone video, provoked widespread protests about police treatment of the
black community.
On
July 6, another black man, 32-year-old Philando Castile, was killed in
Minnesota when a police officer pulled him over. The next day, a sniper killed
five Dallas police officers as they guarded a peaceful protest.
In
Florida, Kinsey's attorney, Hilton Napoleon, provided a cellphone video to the
Herald on Wednesday taken moments before the shooting. It shows Kinsey lying in
the middle of the street with his hands up, asking the officers not to shoot
him, while the autistic man sits next to him, yelling at him to "shut
up."
"Sir,
there's no need for firearms," Kinsey said he told police before he was
shot, according to WSVN. "It was so surprising. It was like a mosquito
bite."
Kinsey
is black. Police haven't released the name or race of the officer who shot him
but said he's been placed on administrative leave, which is standard.
The
investigation has been turned over to the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office,
Cuevas said.
In
an interview with the TV station, Kinsey said he was more worried about his
patient than himself during the incident.
"As
long as I've got my hands up, they're not going to shoot me. This is what I'm
thinking. They're not going to shoot me," he said. "Wow, was I
wrong."
Link to the video
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