Florida police shoot black man with his hands up as he tries to help autistic patient

Police in Florida shot and wounded an autistic man’s unarmed black caretaker during an incident that was captured on a mobile phone showing the caretaker lying on the ground with his hands in the air moments before he was shot.

According to the Miami Herald, North Miami Assistant Police Chief Neal Cuevas said officers responded to the scene Monday following reports of a man threatening to shoot himself. Officers arrived to find 47-year-old Charles Kinsey, a therapist who works with disabilities, according to WSVN-TV, trying to get his 27-year-old patient back to a facility from where he’d wandered.

Video of the incident, obtained by both news outlets, shows Kinsey lying on the ground on his back with both arms raised over his head while the autistic man sits cross-legged on the road next to Kinsey.

“All he has is a toy truck in his hands, a toy truck,” Kinsey is heard saying in the video. “I am a behaviour therapist at a group home. That’s all it is.”

The video shows at least three officers at the scene with their weapons drawn.

“Rinaldo, please be still. Rinaldo, sit down. Rinaldo, lay on your stomach,” Kinsey said to his patient.

WATCH: Caregiver shot by police while caring for autistic patient speaks out

0:38 Caregiver shot by police while caring for autistic patient speaks out

The assistant police chief told the Miami Herald that officers opened fire on the men after the autistic man didn’t comply with officers orders. The video does not show the moment of the shooting. Kinsey was shot in the leg and transported to hospital.

In a statement to the Miami newspaper, North Miami police spokeswoman Natalie Buissereth explained that “arriving officers attempted to negotiate with the two men on the scene, one of whom was later identified as suffering from autism…At some point during the on-scene negotiation, one of the responding officers discharged his weapon.”

No weapons were found.

In an interview with WSVN-TV, Kinsey said he complied with officers and was worried about his patient.

“When I went to the ground, I’m going to the ground just like this here with my hands up,” Kinsey told the news station. “And I am laying down here just like this, and I’m telling them again, ‘Sir, there is no need for firearms. I’m unarmed, he’s an autistic guy. He got a toy truck in his hand.”

A second video of the incident, which appears to be recorded after the shooting, shows an officer standing over Kinsey as he lay on his back while a second officer appears to search the autistic man who is seen lying on his stomach.

“It was like a mosquito bite, and when it hit me, I’m like, ‘I still got my hands in the air,’ and I said, ‘No, I just got shot!’ And I’m saying, ‘Sir, why did you shoot me?’ and his words to me, he said, ‘I don’t know,’” Kinsey said in the interview with WSVN-TV.

Police haven’t released the name or race of the officer who shot Kinsey but said he’s been placed on administrative leave.

At a press conference Thursday morning, U.S. Representative Frederica Wilson told reporters she was stunned by what she saw in the video prior to the shooting of Kinsey, saying “the video is a nightmare.”

North Miami Police Chief Gary Eugene told reporters Thursday that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is taking over the investigation at his request. The state attorney’s office also is investigating.

The latest shooting comes amid a week of violence in which three officers were fatally shot and three others wounded Sunday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, by a shooter whom police also gunned down. The violence capped two weeks of turmoil for Baton Rouge that began with the killing of a black man, Alton Sterling, during a scuffle with two white police officers at a convenience store. That shooting, captured on cellphone video, provoked widespread protests about police treatment of the black community.

–with files from The Associated Press