Black therapist says hands up when he was shot by police

A black therapist who was shot by police while trying to calm an autistic man in the middle of the street says they fired at him even though he had his hands in the air and repeatedly told them that no one was armed.

The moments before the shooting were recorded on cellphone video and show Charles Kinsey lying on the street with his arms raised, talking to his patient and police throughout the standoff with officers, who appeared to have them surrounded.

“As long as I’ve got my hands up, they’re not going to shoot me. This is what I’m thinking. They’re not going to shoot me,” he told WSVN TV from his hospital bed, where he was recovering from a gunshot wound to his leg. “Wow, was I wrong.”

The shooting comes amid weeks of violence involving police. Five officers were killed in Dallas two weeks ago and three law enforcement officers were gunned down Sunday in Baton Rouge, La. Before those shootings, a black man, Alton Sterling, 37, was fatally shot during a scuffle with two white officers at a Baton Rouge convenience store. In Minnesota, 32-year-old Philando Castile, who was also black, was shot to death during a traffic stop.

Cellphone videos captured Sterling’s killing and aftermath of Castile’s shooting, prompting nationwide protests over the treatment of blacks by police.

At a news conference Thursday, North Miami Police Chief Gary Eugene said the investigation had been turned over to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the local state attorney. He called it a “very sensitive matter” and promised a transparent investigation, but he refused to identify the officer or answer reporters’ questions.

Eugene, a Haitian-American with 30 years of South Florida police experience, just became chief last week. “I realize there are many questions about what happened on Monday night. You have questions, the community has questions, we as a city, we as a member of this police department and I also have questions,” he said. “I assure you we will get all the answers.”

He said officers responded after getting a 911 call about a man with a gun threatening to kill himself, and the officers arrived “with that threat in mind” — but no gun was recovered.

Kinsey, 47, said his 27-yearold patient had wandered away from a nearby facility and that he was trying to coax him back when police arrived.

WSVN In this frame from video, Charles Kinsey explains in an interview from his hospital bed in Miami that he was holding his hands up when he was shot by police. He is recovering from a gunshot wound to his leg.