An unarmed black therapist was shot by police and triple handcuffed as he lay in a Florida road with his hands up while caring for his autistic patient.
Mobile phone footage shows Charles Kinsey with his arms spread, telling police he is a therapist and asking them not to shoot him. He had been trying to coax the patient back to his care home from where he had wandered off.
North Miami police said officers were dispatched after a 911 call claiming there was a “man walking around with a gun threatening suicide” on Monday. But the “gun” turned out to be a toy truck and the man was a patient with autism. In the video, two officers are seen pointing rifles at Mr Kinsey, 47, from behind a patrol car. One fired three times, striking Mr Kinsey in the leg.
Mr Kinsey said from hospital: “I’m laying down and I tell them: ‘Sir, there’s no need for firearms, I’m unarmed, he’s an autistic guy, he had a toy truck in his hand. When (the officer) hit me, I’d still got my hands in the air.”
Mr Kinsey was then shackled in three sets of handcuffs as he lay bleeding. The officer who fired has been placed on “administrative leave”.
It comes amid anger at the recent shootings of black men by police, including Philando Castile in Minnesota and Alton Sterling in Louisiana.
The fallout caused police to be targeted, with five officers shot by Micah Johnson at a Black Lives Matter rally in Dallas.
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