Police fire at caregiver lying on road

MIAMI: Authorities say a police officer shot and wounded an autistic man’s caregiver following reports of a man threatening to shoot himself.

North Miami Assistant Police Chief Neal Cuevas told The Miami Herald that officers responded to the scene on Monday to find Charles Kinsey, 47, a therapist who works with people with disabilities, according to WSVN-TV, 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 in the street playing with a toy truck, to lie on the ground.

Kinsey lies down and puts his hands up while trying to get his patient to comply. An officer then fired three times, striking Kinsey in the leg, Cuevas said. No weapon was found.

Kinsey’s lawyer provided a video on Wednesday taken moments before the shooting. It shows Kinsey lying in the street with his hands up, asking the officers not to shoot him, while his patient sits next to him, yelling at him to “shut up”.

“Sir, there’s no need for firearms,” Kinsey said he told police before he was shot, according to the station.

“It was so surprising. It was like a mosquito bite.”

Kinsey is black. Police have not released the name or race of the officer who shot him. AP