Protesters gather outside North Miami Police Department, demand answers after shooting

Police say officer was aiming for the 23-year-old autistic man

NORTH MIAMI, Fla. – Protesters moved into the North Miami Police Department on Thursday and demanded answers for a police-involved shooting that occurred earlier in the week when an unarmed caregiver was shot in the leg while he had his hands up. 

It was tense exchange, and protestors eventually went back outside and hurled questions at police officers who came out to talk. 

"What are you going to change today?" someone asked.

"What is training?" asked another.  

Various groups and members of the community angered after the shooting of Charles Kinsey, the unarmed therapist, who is seen on a video helping an autistic patient who was holding a toy truck.

Police had originally gotten a call about an armed and suicidal person in the area.

"He asked the officer, 'Why did you shoot me?' The officer said 'i don't know,'" Kinsey’s attorney, Hilton Napoleon II, said.

Kinsey was cuffed after the shooting and his nonverbal autistic patient was also taken into police custody.

 Police said they were aiming for the 23-year-old autistic man, not Kinsey.

"He's traumatized by that," Clinton Bower, who runs the group home Kinsey works for, said referring to the autistic man. "In fact he ended up having to be hospitalized yesterday because he's so traumatized."

Protestors, including members of the NAACP, plan to be back at the police station on Friday and continue to demand answers. They said they want to know the officer's name and more transparency about what exactly happened.

 

 


About the Author:

Andrew Perez is a South Florida native who joined the Local 10 News team in May 2014.