This video shows the moment before Florida police shot an unarmed black man with his hands up

By Fusion Staff  |  July 21, 2016 | 2:27am
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On Monday, Charles Kinsey, a behavioral therapist in North Miami, was sitting on the street with an autistic patient who had escaped from a group home when a pair of police officers suddenly approached them with their weapons pointed guns at the two men. The authorities had responded to a call alleging that the patient was threatening suicide and carrying a gun. (The autistic man was reportedly holding a toy truck.) In the cellphone video below, which was posted by FOX Miami, you can see footage of Kinsey holding his hands up and pleading for the police not to shoot.

Shortly thereafter, Kinsey was reportedly shot by police. Kinsey, who ABC Miami reports is in good condition, said he is not sure why police shot him.

“I thought it was a mosquito bite, and when it hit me I had my hands in the air, and I’m thinking I just got shot!” Kinsey told WSVN. “And I’m saying, ‘Sir, why did you shoot me?’ and his words to me were, ‘I don’t know.’”

“When I went to the ground, I went to the ground with my hands up,and I am laying there just like this,” he told Fox Miami. “Telling them again there is no need for firearms. He is autistic. He has a toy truck in his hand.”

Here is part of the North Miami Police Department’s statement, courtesy of Fox Miami:

Arriving officers attempted to negotiate with two men on the scene, one of whom was later identified as suffering from autism. The other man was later identified as an employee of an assisted living facility. At some point during the on-scene negotiation, one of the responding officers discharged his weapon, striking the employee.”

The officer involved in the shooting has been placed on administrative leave.

Michael Rosen is a reporter for Fusion based out of Oakland.

 
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