“I don’t know.”
That’s the response the North Miami police officer gave to shooting victim Charles Kinsey, when he asked why the officer opened fire as he lay flat on the ground, hands outstretched to prove he was no threat to the police.
“I was thinking as long as I have my hands up … they’re not going to shoot me. This is what I’m thinking, they’re not going to shoot me. Wow, was I wrong,” Kinsey, 47, told WSVN from his hospital bed. The Miami Herald reports he suffered a bullet wound to the leg and is expected to be released from Jackson Memorial Hospital on Thursday.
Kinsey’s story is reminiscent of numerous shootings involving the police, in which an unarmed Black suspect is tragically shot and killed. Fortunately, Kinsey is still alive to tell his story, but the trauma of his experience will linger on.
As the July shooting deaths of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, five Dallas officers, and three Baton Rouge cops stays top of mind, it presents a critical conversation for national law enforcement on policing in minority communities, with an added topic of mental health disparities among African-Americans and other disenfranchised groups.
What led up to the shooting began on Monday at the MacTown Panther Group Homes, where Kinsey works as a mental health counselor. He was called outside to retrieve an autistic patient who wandered into the street to play with a toy truck.
Kinsey was just doing his job when police arrived at the scene. Officers, on the other hand, say they received a call reporting an armed man was in the street, threatening to commit suicide.
Cell phone footage released Wednesday shows Kinsey trying to de-escalate the situation, telling his patient to be still and to lie down, while locked in an unthreatening position.
“I was more worried about him than myself,” Kinsey said, according to WSVN. The autistic patient’s name hasn’t been released.
North Miami Police Department’s spokeswoman Natalie Buissereth released the following statement: “Arriving officers attempted to negotiate with the two men on the scene, one of whom was later identified as suffering from autism… At some point during the on-scene negotiation, one of the responding officers discharged his weapon.”
After they shot him, officers rushed Kinsey, searched his body and handcuffed him.
“They flipped me over, and I’m faced down in the ground, with cuffs on, waiting on the rescue squad to come.” Kinsey said. “I’d say about 20, about 20 minutes it took the rescue squad to get there. And I was like, bleeding — I mean bleeding and I was like, ‘Wow.’”
Kinsey’s lawyer Hilton Napoleon told WSVN he’s livid. “There’s no justification for shooting an unarmed person who’s talking to you and telling you that they don’t have a gun, and that they’re a mental health counselor,” Napoleon said. The Herald reports Kinsey and Napoleon are in settlement talks with the city of North Miami.
Police are staying mum on the incident – they haven’t released the name of the responding officer who fired at Kinsey, but have placed him on administrative leave. In response, the state attorney is looking into the investigation, WSVN reports.
There have been no reports that a gun was found near the scene, according to The Miami Herald.
SOURCE: WSVN, Miami Herald | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty
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64 Black Men And Boys Killed By Police
64 Black Men And Boys Killed By Police
1. De'Von Bailey, 19
1 of 642. Eric Logan, 54
2 of 643. Jamarion Robinson, 26
3 of 644. Gregory Hill Jr., 30
4 of 645. JaQuavion Slaton, 20
5 of 646. Ryan Twyman, 24
6 of 647. Brandon Webber, 20
7 of 648. Jimmy Atchison, 21
8 of 649. Willie McCoy, 20
9 of 6410. Emantic "EJ" Fitzgerald Bradford Jr., 21
10 of 6411. D’ettrick Griffin, 18
11 of 6412. Jemel Roberson, 26
Source:false 12 of 6413. DeAndre Ballard, 23
Source:false 13 of 6414. Botham Shem Jean, 26
Source:false 14 of 6415. Robert Lawrence White, 41
Source:false 15 of 6416. Anthony Lamar Smith, 24
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16 of 64
17. Ramarley Graham, 18
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17 of 64
18. Manuel Loggins Jr., 31
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18 of 64
19. Trayvon Martin, 17
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19 of 64
20. Wendell Allen, 20
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20 of 64
21. Kendrec McDade, 19
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21 of 64
22. Larry Jackson Jr., 32
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22 of 64
23. Jonathan Ferrell, 24
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23 of 64
24. Jordan Baker, 26
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24 of 64
25. Victor White lll, 22
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25 of 64
26. Dontre Hamilton, 31
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26 of 64
27. Eric Garner, 43
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27 of 64
28. John Crawford lll, 22
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28 of 64
29. Michael Brown, 18
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29 of 64
30. Ezell Ford, 25
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30 of 64
31. Dante Parker, 36
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31 of 64
32. Kajieme Powell, 25
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32 of 64
33. Laquan McDonald, 17
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33 of 64
34. Akai Gurley, 28
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34 of 64
35. Tamir Rice, 12
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35 of 64
36. Rumain Brisbon, 34
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36 of 64
37. Jerame Reid, 36
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37 of 64
38. Charly Keunang, 43
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38 of 64
39. Tony Robinson, 19
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39 of 64
40. Walter Scott, 50
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40 of 64
41. Freddie Gray, 25
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41 of 64
42. Brendon Glenn, 29
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42 of 64
43. Samuel DuBose, 43
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43 of 64
44. Christian Taylor, 19
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44 of 64
45. Jamar Clark, 24
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45 of 64
46. Mario Woods, 26
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46 of 64
47. Quintonio LeGrier, 19
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47 of 64
48. Gregory Gunn, 58
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48 of 64
49. Akiel Denkins, 24
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49 of 64
50. Alton Sterling, 37
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50 of 64
51. Philando Castile, 32
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51 of 64
52. Terrence Sterling, 31
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52 of 64
53. Terence Crutcher, 40
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53 of 64
54. Keith Lamont Scott, 43
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54 of 64
55. Alfred Olango, 38
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55 of 64
56. Jordan Edwards, 15
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56 of 64
57. Stephon Clark, 22
Source:false 57 of 6458. Danny Ray Thomas, 34
Source:false 58 of 6459. DeJuan Guillory, 27
Source:false 59 of 6460. Patrick Harmon, 50
60 of 6461. Jonathan Hart, 21
61 of 6462. Maurice Granton, 24
62 of 6463. Julius Johnson, 23
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Continue reading 64 Black Men And Boys Killed By Police
64 Black Men And Boys Killed By Police
UPDATED: 9:54 a.m. EDT, August 14, 2019 -- Police shooting and killing Black males is all but a centuries-old American tradition among law enforcement in the U.S. But the fact that this apparent rite of police passage was still thriving in 2019 and expected to continue well into 2020 and beyond should give any American citizen pause as more and more names of Black males continue to be added to a growing list of victims with what seems like a new shooting every week. READ MORE: Police Shootings And The Public Execution Of Black People Other victims' names include, but certainly, aren't limited to: Tamir Rice; Botham Shem Jean; E.J. Bradford; and Michael Brown. As NewsOne continues covering these shootings that so often go ignored by mainstream media, the below running list Black men and boys who have been shot and killed by police under suspicious circumstances can serve as a tragic reminder of the danger they face upon being born into a world of hate that branded them as suspects since birth.
Unbelivable: Unarmed Black Therapist Shot While Calming Autistic Man was originally published on newsone.com
