Therapist shot by police meets with autistic man in incident
AVENTURA,Fla.— An unarmed black therapist who was shot in the leg by police last week while protecting his autistic client said he had a joyful reunion Thursday with the man, who remains hospitalized because of emotional trauma.
Charles Kinsey told reporters outside a South Florida hospital that Arnaldo Rios jumped from his bed and hugged him when he walked into his room for their private meeting.
“He is looking well. He is doing really well, and he was very happy to see me,” said Kinsey, who stood with a cane. Kinsey was released from the hospital late last week. “He gave me a real big hug and I sat with him for about 10 to 15 minutes.”
Kinsey, a 47-year-old married father of five, was shot by a North Miami police officer last week. He had followed Rios for more than a block trying to get him to return to the group home where he lived and Kinsey works. Police released Thursday a recording of a 911 call from a woman reporting a suicidal man walking down the street.
“There is a guy in the middle of the road, and he appears to have a gun,” she told the operator. “He has it to his head, and there is a guy trying to talk him out of it.”
After giving the operator the location and a description of the pair, she slightly backed off her description of the gun.
Police say her description is why officers pointed rifles at the pair.
Cellphone video shows Kinsey lying on his back next to Rios with his hands up, screaming at officers that Rios is autistic and that the metal object in his hands was a toy truck.
After the video ended, officer Jonathan Aledda fired three shots. Two missed, but one struck Kinsey just above his left knee.
Aledda, who is Hispanic, has been placed on paid leave while the shooting is investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and local prosecutors. His union contends he was firing at Rios and thought Rios was about to shoot Kinsey. Police Cmdr. Emile Hollant is suspended without pay over allegations of fabricating information about the shooting.
The North Miami department said Wednesday that it will, over the next 90 days, increase training for officers on how to deal with people with autism and on de-escalating confrontations.