“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
SEE ALSO:
Law & Order Take Center Stage At RNC Opening After Cop Shootings
67 Black Men And Boys Killed By Police
67 Black Men And Boys Killed By Police
1. De’von Bailey, 19
1 of 672. Christopher Whitfield, 31
2 of 673. Anthony Hill, 26
3 of 674. De'Von Bailey, 19
4 of 675. Eric Logan, 54
5 of 676. Jamarion Robinson, 26
6 of 677. Gregory Hill Jr., 30
7 of 678. JaQuavion Slaton, 20
8 of 679. Ryan Twyman, 24
9 of 6710. Brandon Webber, 20
10 of 6711. Jimmy Atchison, 21
11 of 6712. Willie McCoy, 20
12 of 6713. Emantic "EJ" Fitzgerald Bradford Jr., 21
13 of 6714. D’ettrick Griffin, 18
14 of 6715. Jemel Roberson, 26
Source:false 15 of 6716. DeAndre Ballard, 23
Source:false 16 of 6717. Botham Shem Jean, 26
Source:false 17 of 6718. Robert Lawrence White, 41
Source:false 18 of 6719. Anthony Lamar Smith, 24
Source:Getty
19 of 67
20. Ramarley Graham, 18
Source:Getty
20 of 67
21. Manuel Loggins Jr., 31
Source:Getty
21 of 67
22. Trayvon Martin, 17
Source:Getty
22 of 67
23. Wendell Allen, 20
Source:Getty
23 of 67
24. Kendrec McDade, 19
Source:Getty
24 of 67
25. Larry Jackson Jr., 32
Source:Getty
25 of 67
26. Jonathan Ferrell, 24
Source:Getty
26 of 67
27. Jordan Baker, 26
Source:Getty
27 of 67
28. Victor White lll, 22
Source:Getty
28 of 67
29. Dontre Hamilton, 31
Source:Getty
29 of 67
30. Eric Garner, 43
Source:Getty
30 of 67
31. John Crawford lll, 22
Source:Getty
31 of 67
32. Michael Brown, 18
Source:Getty
32 of 67
33. Ezell Ford, 25
Source:Getty
33 of 67
34. Dante Parker, 36
Source:Getty
34 of 67
35. Kajieme Powell, 25
Source:Getty
35 of 67
36. Laquan McDonald, 17
Source:Getty
36 of 67
37. Akai Gurley, 28
Source:Getty
37 of 67
38. Tamir Rice, 12
Source:Getty
38 of 67
39. Rumain Brisbon, 34
Source:Getty
39 of 67
40. Jerame Reid, 36
Source:Getty
40 of 67
41. Charly Keunang, 43
Source:Getty
41 of 67
42. Tony Robinson, 19
Source:Getty
42 of 67
43. Walter Scott, 50
Source:Getty
43 of 67
44. Freddie Gray, 25
Source:Getty
44 of 67
45. Brendon Glenn, 29
Source:Getty
45 of 67
46. Samuel DuBose, 43
Source:Getty
46 of 67
47. Christian Taylor, 19
Source:Getty
47 of 67
48. Jamar Clark, 24
Source:Getty
48 of 67
49. Mario Woods, 26
Source:Getty
49 of 67
50. Quintonio LeGrier, 19
Source:Getty
50 of 67
51. Gregory Gunn, 58
Source:Getty
51 of 67
52. Akiel Denkins, 24
Source:Getty
52 of 67
53. Alton Sterling, 37
Source:Getty
53 of 67
54. Philando Castile, 32
Source:Getty
54 of 67
55. Terrence Sterling, 31
Source:Getty
55 of 67
56. Terence Crutcher, 40
Source:Getty
56 of 67
57. Keith Lamont Scott, 43
Source:Getty
57 of 67
58. Alfred Olango, 38
Source:Getty
58 of 67
59. Jordan Edwards, 15
Source:Getty
59 of 67
60. Stephon Clark, 22
Source:false 60 of 6761. Danny Ray Thomas, 34
Source:false 61 of 6762. DeJuan Guillory, 27
Source:false 62 of 6763. Patrick Harmon, 50
63 of 6764. Jonathan Hart, 21
64 of 6765. Maurice Granton, 24
65 of 6766. Julius Johnson, 23
66 of 67
Continue reading 67 Black Men And Boys Killed By Police
67 Black Men And Boys Killed By Police
UPDATED: 9:54 a.m. EDT, November 16, 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
