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Witness
to
police
shooting
says he
tried to
warn
officers
By TERRY
SPENCER
Associated
Press
NORTH
MIAMI,
FL -
When
Thomas
Matthews
noticed
North
Miami
police
officers
responding
to a
commotion
a block
from his
usual
outdoor
sitting
spot, he
grabbed
his
binoculars
and saw
a
middle-aged
black
man and
a
younger
autistic
man
sitting
in an
intersection.
The
officers,
he said,
grabbed
rifles
from the
patrol
cars'
trunks
and
crept
toward
the men.
The
autistic
man was
holding
something
in his
hand.
Peering
through
his
binoculars,
he could
see the
object
was a
toy
truck.
Matthews
says he
tried to
tell an
officer
who had
stayed
behind
for
crowd
control,
but she
told him
to back
up.
Soon,
three
shots
rang out
and
therapist
Charles
Kinsey,
who had
been
trying
to coax
his
27-year-old
autistic
client
back to
a nearby
facility,
was
wounded
in the
leg. The
shooting
drew
national
attention
because
much of
what
happened
before
the
shooting
was
captured
on
video.
"If she
would
have
told the
other
officers,
maybe
they
wouldn't
have
shot,"
said
Matthews,
a
73-year-old
African-American.
He ran a
North
Miami
flower
shop
before
retiring
and has
lived in
the area
for
years.
He said
he has
never
had a
problem
with
North
Miami
police.
"But I
guess
with all
the
shootings
that are
going
on, they
are
nervous
and
shook
up,"
Matthews
said.
Monday's
shooting
comes
amid
weeks of
violence
involving
police.
Five
officers
were
killed
in
Dallas
two
weeks
ago and
three
law
enforcement
officers
were
gunned
down
Sunday
in Baton
Rouge,
Louisiana.
Before
those
shootings,
a black
man,
Alton
Sterling,
37, was
fatally
shot
during a
scuffle
with two
white
officers
at a
convenience
store.
In
Minnesota,
32-year-old
Philando
Castile,
who was
also
black,
was shot
to death
during a
traffic
stop.
Cellphone
videos
captured
Sterling's
killing
and the
aftermath
of
Castile's
shooting,
prompting
nationwide
protests
over the
treatment
of
blacks
by
police.
At a
news
conference
Thursday,
North
Miami
Police
Chief
Gary
Eugene
said the
investigation
has been
turned
over to
the
Florida
Department
of Law
Enforcement
and the
state
attorney's
office.
He
called
it a
"very
sensitive
matter"
and
promised
a
transparent
investigation,
but
refused
to
identify
the
officer
or
answer
reporters'
questions.
Eugene,
a
Haitian-American
with 30
years of
South
Florida
police
experience,
just
became
chief
last
week.
"I
realize
there
are many
questions
about
what
happened
on
Monday
night.
You have
questions,
the
community
has
questions,
we as a
city, we
as a
member
of this
police
department
and I
also
have
questions,"
he said.
"I
assure
you we
will get
all the
answers."
During a
Thursday
news
conference,
John
Rivera,
who runs
Miami-Dade
County's
police
union,
said the
officer
believed
Kinsey's
patient
was
armed,
and the
officer
was
trying
to shoot
the
patient
in an
attempt
to save
Kinsey's
life.
Nancy
Abudu,
the
American
Civil
Liberties
Union's
legal
director
in
Florida,
said her
group
hasn't
received
any
brutality
complaints
about
the
North
Miami
police
or about
any
questionable
shootings
before
this
week's.
Kinsey's
attorney,
Hilton
Napoleon
II, said
he is
already
talking
to North
Miami
city
officials
about a
monetary
settlement
for his
client,
who is
married
with
five
children.
City
officials
did not
return a
phone
call
seeking
confirmation.
Attorney
General
Loretta
Lynch
told
reporters
the
Justice
Department
is aware
of the
shooting
and
working
with
local
law
enforcement
to
gather
all of
the
facts
and to
decide
how to
proceed.
U.S.
Rep.
Frederica
Wilson,
who
represents
the
area,
said she
was in
shock.
"From
what I
saw, he
was
lying on
the
ground
with his
hands
up.
Freezing.
But he
was
still
shot,"
said
Wilson,
a
Democrat.
"This is
not
typical
of North
Miami,"
she
said.
"We're
not
accustomed
to this
tension.
... This
cannot
happen
again."
The
chief
said
officers
responded
after
getting
a 911
call
about a
man with
a gun
threatening
to kill
himself,
and the
officers
arrived
"with
that
threat
in mind"
- but no
gun was
recovered.
Cellphone
video
shows
Kinsey
lying on
the
ground
with his
arms
raised,
talking
to his
patient
and
police
throughout
the
standoff
with
officers,
who
appeared
to have
them
surrounded.
"As long
as I've
got my
hands
up,
they're
not
going to
shoot
me. This
is what
I'm
thinking.
They're
not
going to
shoot
me," he
told
WSVN-TV
(http://bit.ly/2ac7zm1)
from his
hospital
bed,
where he
was
recovering
from a
gunshot
wound to
his leg.
"Wow,
was I
wrong."
The
video
does not
show the
moment
of the
shooting.
Napoleon
said
there
was
about a
two-minute
gap in
which
the
person
who shot
the
video
had
switched
off,
thinking
nothing
more
noteworthy
would
happen.
It then
briefly
shows
the
aftermath
of the
shooting.
He would
not say
who gave
him the
video.
"Lay
down on
your
stomach,"
Kinsey
says to
his
patient
in the
video,
which
was shot
from
about 30
feet
away and
provided
to the
Miami
Herald
(http://hrld.us/2ahReMa).
"Shut
up!"
responds
the
patient,
who is
sitting
cross-legged
in the
road.
Kinsey
said he
was more
worried
about
his
patient
than
himself.
"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,"
Kinsey
said.
An
officer
later
fired
three
times,
striking
Kinsey
in the
leg,
assistant
police
chief
Neal
Cuevas
told the
newspaper.
Napoleon
said
officers
handcuffed
Kinsey
and left
him
lying in
the
street
on his
stomach
for 20
minutes
without
rendering
first
aid.
After
the
shooting,
Kinsey
said he
asked an
officer
why he
was shot
and the
officer
said "I
don't
know."
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