VIDEO: Unarmed man on ground with hands in air shot by police

ByTim Rearden KABC logo
Thursday, July 21, 2016
VIDEO: Unarmed man on ground with hands in air before police shoot
Video showed 47-year-old Charles Kinsey, an unarmed man, with his hands in the air before police shot him.

NORTH MIAMI, Fla. (KABC) -- A behavioral therapist was shot by police in North Miami, Florida, while attempting to help a suicidal man with autism. Video from the scene showed the therapist, later identified as 47-year-old Charles Kinsey, had laid on his back and put his hands in the air while communicating with officers.

Kinsey said while his hands were up, an officer shot him.

"I'm like this right here, and when he shot me, it was so surprising," Kinsey told WSVN-TV in Miami. "It was like a mosquito bite, and when it hit me, I'm like, 'I still got my hands in the air, and I said, 'No I just got shot! And I'm saying, 'Sir, why did you shoot me?' and his words to me, he said, 'I don't know.'"

There doesn't appear to be video of the actual shooting, but Kinsey said he still had his hands in the air when he was shot.

North Miami police said they responded to NE 14 Avenue and NE 127 Street on Monday after they received a call about an armed man threatening suicide.

Kinsey said the man was one of his patients at an assisted-living facility, according to ABC affiliate WPLG-TV in Miami.

In video of the incident, Kinsey, while on his back with his hands in the air, can be heard shouting to police, "All he has is a toy truck, a toy truck. I am a behavior therapist at a group home."

Kinsey was also heard attempting to calm down the man with autism.

"Rinaldo, please be still. Rinaldo, sit down. Rinaldo, lay on your stomach," he said.

While Kinsey was trying to help his patient, an officer fired at him three times, according to police.

Kinsey was struck in the leg and was taken to the hospital. He was listed in good condition.

"I was really more worried about him than myself. I was thinking as long as I have my hands up they're not going to shoot me. This is what I'm thinking, they're not going to shoot me. Wow, was I wrong," Kinsey told WSVN-TV.

The officer who shot Kinsey was placed on administrative leave, per department policy.

Officials said an investigation into the shooting was underway with the assistance of the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office.