North Miami Mayor Smith Joseph is speaking out about the shooting of an unarmed black man in his city on Monday. Charles Kinsey is a healthcare worker in North Miami.
He was caring for a man with autism who walked out of a mental health clinic when police arrived. In a video released to the media, Kinsey is lying on the street with his arms in the air before he was shot.
Police say they were responding to a call that someone was carrying a gun and threatening suicide. They now say no gun was found.
But Kinsey was shot.
Mayor Joseph sat down with WLRN’sNadege Green to talk about the incident -- and the next steps in the latest shooting of an unarmed black man to capture national attention. Below is an edited version of their conversation.
Can you talk about what happened and what your immediate reaction has been as mayor of the city?
What happened was a very sad incident and if affects all of us, but as a mayor of the fifth largest city in Miami-Dade County it is one of my tasks to see to it that our police department acts and behaves responsibly.
#NorthMiami Mayor Smith Joseph calls for unity after #CharlesKinsey shooting. @wlrn (3 of 3) pic.twitter.com/W2ocCogCE7 — Nadege C. Green (@NadegeGreen) July 22, 2016
There is a cell phone video that shows at least the minutes leading up to the shooting. Did you see that video?
No. I have not seen the video yet.
#NorthMiami Mayor Smith Joseph warns against drawing conclusions from #CharlesKinsey video. @WLRN (1 of 3) pic.twitter.com/fDzZ15hg26 — Nadege C. Green (@NadegeGreen) July 22, 2016
In the video it appears that the police are telling [Charles Kinsey] to lay down and he does and he had his hands up. There is a man next to him playing with a toy truck. And at some point Kinsey gets shot and there were no weapons on the scene.
Videos sometimes give you some dimensions, some part of an actual event that may have lasted five minutes, but you only see one minute of it. Can we draw any conclusions just from that one-minute video? I don't think so.
#NorthMiami Mayor Joseph told me the city will not shy away from the truth in #CharlesKinsey investigation. (2 of 3) pic.twitter.com/lKoNZ4F5Fu — Nadege C. Green (@NadegeGreen) July 22, 2016
What will transparency look like as they plays out over the next few months?
We should have townhall meetings We should go to the public, we should have our doors open. I will be talking to the city manager along with the chief of police to see if we can have a special line or create a committee where people can actually come and voice their complaints.
