Thursday, July 21, 2016

Unarmed man shot by Miami police asks: 'Why?'

A man who was shot by police in Miami Wednesday evening says the officer who shot him said he didn't know why he did it. Charles Kinsey, 47, was shot after police got a call about a suicidal person with a gun.

Video of the event shows Kinsey on the ground with his hands up, next to a man he identified as a person in his care — Kinsey is a therapist who works with people with disabilities.
Kinsey can be seen asking police not to shoot him, and trying to get his patient to lie on the ground as police surround them. His patient was sitting up and playing with a toy truck. He said he told the officers that neither he nor his patient, who he said is autistic, were armed.

police officers thought the toy truck was a gun. But it’s not clear why they opened fire, or whether they meant to shoot Kinsey. Police ended up shooting Kinsey three times in the leg.

After he was shot three times in the leg, the police turned Kinsey on his back and handcuffed him. He said they left him on the ground, bleeding and handcuffed, for 20 minutes.