In yet another horrifying instance of police brutality directed against black men, Charles Kinsey — a therapist at a group home in South Florida — was shot in the leg while lying on his back with his arms up, trying to calm an autistic man who was holding a toy truck.
The shooting occurred on Monday, and a video filmed by a bystander was released on Wednesday, writes the Washington Post.
In the video, Kinsey can be heard telling police with assault rifles, “All he has is a toy truck in his hand. A toy truck. I am a behavior therapist at a group home.”
Then, one of the officers shot his gun three times and a bullet hit Kinsey’s right leg. After shooting him, police handcuffed Kinsey and left him on the pavement, bleeding, for around 20 minutes.
In an interview with local television station WSVN from his hospital bed, Kinsey said, “I was thinking as long as I have my hands up…they’re not going to shoot me. Wow, was I wrong.”
The North Miami police department said the officers were responding to a 911 call of “an armed male suspect threatening suicide” and that the officer, who has not been identified, who shot Kinsey has been placed on administrative leave.
This shooting happened the same week that a judge acquitted Lt. Brian Rice in the death of Freddie Gray in 2015. Earlier this month, police murdered two other black men, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. According to Vox, black men make up 31% of police shootings but just 13% of the US population, meaning that the police target and kill black men at disproportionate rates, and it is very, very, very rare for police to face any consequences in these shootings and deaths.
This needs to stop happening. #BlackLivesMatter.
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