VIDEO: Unarmed black therapist shot by police while caring for autistic patient

Mike Gallagher

Jul 21, 2016 - 04:02

Jul 21, 2016 - 05:11

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VIDEO: Unarmed black therapist shot by police while caring for autistic patient

Therapist Charles Kinsey, 46, (left) was shot in North Miami while he was on the ground with his hands up. Throughout the ordeal, he tries to soothe his autistic patient (right), who was playing with a toy truck

An unarmed black therapist who was looking after an autistic man was shot by police while he was lying in the street with his hands up.

North Miami Assistant Police Chief Neal Cuevas told The Miami Herald that the incident happened on Monday, following reports of a man with a gun threatening to shoot himself.

The video shows 47-year-old Charles Kinsey asking the police not to shoot him, during the incident in Miami. He can be heard telling the officers that he was a behavior therapist at a group home trying to get his 27-year-old autistic patient back to the facility safely.

'All he has is a toy truck — a toy truck,' Kinsey pleads with cops, lying flat on the ground with arms raised, as seen in cell phone footage of the incident. 'I am a behavior therapist at a group home.'

Kinsey tries to get his patient to comply, using soothing words so he remains calm.

'Rinaldo, please be still, Rinaldo,' he is heard saying in video released by WSVN. 'Sit down, Rinaldo. Lay on your stomach.'

‘Sir, there’s no need for firearms,’ Kinsey said he told police before he was shot.

An officer then fired three times, striking Kinsey in the leg, Cuevas said.

Kinsey’s lawyer, Hilton Napoleon, gave the Herald the mobile phone video taken moments before the shooting.

Police have not released the name or race of the officer who shot him.