Authorities in Florida said a police officer shot and wounded an autistic man’s caretaker following reports of a man threatening to shoot himself.
(FOX)- According to The Miami Herald, North Miami Assistant Police Chief Neal Cuevas said that officers responded to the scene Monday to find 47-year-old Charles Kinsey, a therapist who works with people with disabilities.
WSVN-TV reported that Kinsey, who is black, was trying to get his 27-year-old patient back to a facility from where he wandered.
Cuevas said police ordered Kinsey and the patient, who was sitting the street playing with a toy truck, to lie on the ground. Kinsey complies with the order and puts his hands up while trying to get his patient to follow him. An officer then fired three times, striking Kinsey in the leg, Cuevas said. No weapon was found.
Kinsey’s attorney, Hilton Napoleon, provided a cellphone video to the Herald on Wednesday taken moments before the shooting. It shows Kinsey lying in the middle of the street with his hands up, asking the officers not to shoot him, while the autistic man sits next to him, yelling at him to “shut up.”
North Miami police spokeswoman Natalie Buissereth said in a statement to The Herald that officers made an attempt to negotiate with the men at the scene.
“At some point during the on-scene negotiation, one of the responding officers discharged his weapon,” Buissereth said.
Police have yet to identify the officer who shot him and weren’t sure whether the officer was aiming for Kinsey.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.