AVENTURA, Fla. (WSVN) — A behavioral therapist was reunited with his patient after he was shot by North Miami Police.
Charles Kinsey is out of the hospital, but he now uses a cane to get around. “I was shot right here in my lower thigh,” he said as he pointed to his leg.
North Miami Police officer Jonathan Aledda shot Kinsey after police responded to a call of a man with a gun.
Audio from the calls to 911 paint the confusing situation.
Caller: “There’s this guy in the middle of the road, and he has what appears to be a gun.”
Dispatcher: “What is he doing with the gun?”
Caller: “He has it to his head and there’s a guy there trying to talk him out of it.”
However, there was no gun, just Kinsey and his patient with autism, Arnaldo, who was holding a toy truck.
Ten days after the shooting, Kinsey and Arnaldo were finally reunited. “I wanted to come and visit him before I did anything,” Kinsey said.
Arnaldo’s mother described the reunion. “When he saw Charles he said, ‘Oh, my God, Charles! Oh, you have a cane.’ ‘Yes, I have a cane now.’ ‘OK, are you OK?’ ‘Yes, I’m OK now.'”
“He came up and gave me a hug, just like that,” Kinsey said. “I said, ‘Hey, Arnaldo, how are you doing?’ He said, ‘Good, good.’ I said, ‘They treating you OK in there?’ and he was like, ‘Yeah, yeah?’ I just wanted to bust out in tears, man. I really wanted to. I love him. I love him.”
The incident created a bond between Kinsey and Arnaldo. Arnaldo remains in Aventura Hospital because he is too traumatized to return to his group home. “He started pounding the place in which Charles Kinsey was shot and saying, ‘The blood, the blood, the police. I hate the police, the blood, the blood,'” said attorney Matthew Dietz.
North Miami Police have a new 90-day plan in reaction to the shooting. They plan to train officers in autism awareness, crisis intervention, and the chief said, the entire department will get body and dash cameras.
“I can’t sleep at night. I’m just thinking this could have went the other way,” Kinsey said.
Kinsey said he is in both physical and emotional pain, but seeing Arnaldo helps them both heal. “When he seen me, he just jumped and came right to me, and I really wanted to cry,” Kinsey said.
Arnaldo’s attorney said his family is having discussions with the Department of Justice for them to start their own investigation.
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