Thursday, March 28, 2024

Cop Who Shot Man With Hands Up Says He Was Aiming for his Autistic Patient

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*Days after behavioral health care worker Charles Kinsey was shot by North Miami police as lay on the ground with his hands up, the head of the local police union claims the officer was actually trying to shoot Kinsey’s patient, a man with autism who was beside him in the street.

“Fearing for Mr. Kinsey’s life, the officer discharged his firearm, trying to save Mr. Kinsey’s life,” says John Rivera, president of the Dade County Police Benevolent Association. “And he missed, and accidentally struck Mr. Kinsey.”

According to NPR, Rivera also declared that the case is different from other recent incidents of police shootings of black men, stating, “Folks, this is not what the rest of the nation is going through.”

He added, “This is not a case of a rogue cop, this is not a case of police abuse.”

As previously reported, officers responded to a call about an armed man who was threatening suicide. Rivera said in a news conference that the officers saw Kinsey, who is black, in the middle of the street with a white male — later identified as a patient who had wandered away from an assisted living facility group home.

“It appeared to the officers that the white male was trying to do harm to Mr. Kinsey,” Rivera said, citing the man’s motions toward Kinsey just before the officer opened fire.

It was only much later, Rivera said, that the officers realized two important facts: that the man next to Kinsey has autism, and that he did not have a gun.

However, Kinsey is heard in video of the incident yelling to officers that the man was holding a toy fire truck in his hand.

Rivera said the widely circulated video of the event has been incorrectly perceived as police misuse of force, noting that it was filmed from a vantage point closer than that of the officers who were on the scene.

Rivera said he was speaking about the case “to fix some wrongs” in the discussion it has generated, describing it as a tragic accident brought on by officers’ uncertainty over the patient’s intentions. He did not dispute Kinsey’s account, in which Kinsey has said he had his hands up when he was shot.

“Listen, Mr. Kinsey did everything right,” Rivera said. “Let’s be clear about that. Mr. Kinsey did everything right.”

Reading a brief statement from the officer who shot Kinsey, Rivera said, “I took this job to save lives and help people. I did what I had to do in a split second to accomplish that, and I hate to hear others paint me as something I am not.”

The North Miami Police Department has released few details about the case, other than to outline the basic circumstances and, last night, to identify the officer who shot Kinsey as a 30-year-old Hispanic man who’s been on the police force for four years.

“The officer in this case … wishes nothing but the best for Mr. Kinsey,” Rivera said, adding that the officer “is praying for his speedy recovery.”

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