Cop shoots caretaker of autistic man playing in the street with toy truck

When a 23-year-old autistic man carrying a toy truck wandered from a mental health center out into the street Monday, a worker there named Charles Kinsey went to retrieve him.

A few minutes later the autistic man was still sitting cross-legged blocking the roadway while playing with the small, rectangular white toy. And Kinsey was prone on the ground next to him — a bullet from an assault rifle fired by a police officer having struck his leg.

“He throws his hands up in the air and says, ‘Don’t shoot me.’ They say lie on the ground, so he does,” Kinsey’s attorney Hilton Napoleon said Wednesday. “He’s on his back with his hands in the air trying to convince the other guy to lie down. It doesn’t make any sense.”

Cellphone video footage obtained by Napoleon clearly shows the heavy-set autistic man sitting and playing with his toy while Kinsey, dressed in a yellow shirt and shorts, obeys police orders to lie down on his back.

The video, taken before the officer fired his weapon, shows Kinsey on his back with his hands in the air telling police he didn’t have a weapon and asking them not to fire. At one point the autistic man appears to yell at Kinsey to shut up. A second brief video shows officers who are carrying rifles physically patting down Kinsey and the autistic man while they are lying on the ground.

In an interview with WSVN-Channel 7, Kinsey said that after he was shot, officers approached and flipped him over and handcuffed him.

“Sir, there’s no need for firearms,” Kinsey told the news station he said to police before he was shot. “It was so surprising. It was like a mosquito bite.”

Kinsey said when he asked the officer why he fired his weapon, the cop responded, “I don’t know.”

Two bystander videos capture snippets of what happened next.

A video from before the shooting begins with bystanders saying “Look, look, look,” in Spanish.

“Mira, mira, mira,” a man can be heard saying, training his cell phone camera on Kinsey, who is on the ground with hands up and trying to get the autistic man to do the same.

“Lay down on your stomach,” Kinsey tells the young man.

“Lay down on your stomach,” Kinsey tells the young man.

“Shut up,” the autistic man shouts. “Shut up, you idiot.”

Kinsey turns his attention to the police.

“Can I get up now?” he asks. “Can I get up?”

As police aim their assault rifles at the men in the street, Ki“Lay down on your stomach,” Kinsey tells the young man.

“Shut up,” the autistic man shouts. “Shut up, you idiot.”

Kinsey turns his attention to the police.

“Can I get up now?” he asks. “Can I get up?”

As police aim their assault rifles at the men in the street, Kinsey tries to explain to them that they pose no threat.

“All he has is a toy truck in his hand. A toy truck,” Kinsey can be heard saying in the video. “I am a behavioural therapist at a group home.

“That’s all it is,” he says, referring to the toy truck. “That’s all it is. There is no need for guns.”

“Let me see your hands,” a cop can be heard shouting at the autistic man. “Get on the ground. Get on the ground.”

The autistic man then begins to make noises, apparently playing with his toy.

“Rinaldo, please be still,” Kinsey tells his patient. “Sit down, Rinaldo. Lay on your stomach.”nsey tries to explain to them that they pose no threat.

“All he has is a toy truck in his hand. A toy truck,” Kinsey can be heard saying in the video. “I am a behavioural therapist at a group home.

“That’s all it is,” he says, referring to the toy truck. “That’s all it is. There is no need for guns.”

“Let me see your hands,” a cop can be heard shouting at the autistic man. “Get on the ground. Get on the ground.”

The autistic man then begins to make noises, apparently playing with his toy.

“Rinaldo, please be still,” Kinsey tells his patient. “Sit down, Rinaldo. Lay on your stomach.”

The video then cuts out.

Seconds later, one of the officers fired his weapon three times. One of the bullets struck Kinsey near his right knee, exiting his upper thigh.

“My life flashed in front of me,” he told WSVN, adding that his first thought was of his family.

His second thought was one of confusion.

“When he shot me, it was so surprising,” he said. “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!’”

“Sir, why did you shoot me?” Kinsey recalled asking the officer.

“He said, ‘I don’t know.’”

A second video captures the moments after the shooting, as officers placed the injured Kinsey and the autistic man into handcuffs.

“He was like ‘Please don’t shoot me,’” a bystander can be heard saying on the video. “Why they shot the black boy and not the fat boy?”

“Because the things with the blacks,” another man says.

“I don’t know who’s guilty,” adds what sounds like a woman’s voice.

It was the officers’ reaction after the shooting that upset Kinsey and Napoleon the most.

“They flipped me over, and I’m faced down in the ground, with cuffs on, waiting on the rescue squad to come,” Kinsey told WSVN. “I’d say about 20, about 20 minutes it took the rescue squad to get there. And I was like, bleeding — I mean bleeding and I was like, ‘Wow.’”