Police shoot an autistic man’s black carer in North Miami, Florida after receiving calls that a man was sitting in the street with a gun. Courtesy: FOX News

MOBILE phone footage has emerged of the moment an autistic man’s black carer was lying down with his hands in the air, before police shot him.

Authorities confirmed a police officer shot and wounded Charles Kinsey, the carer of a 23-year-old autistic man who had run away from a mental health facility in North Miami, Florida.

North Miami Assistant Police Chief Neal Cuevas told The Miami Herald that officers responded to a 911 call on Monday following reports of a man threatening to shoot himself.

Officers arrived to find Kinsey, a therapist who works with disabilities, according to WSVN-TV, trying to get his patient back to a mental health facility from where he’d wandered.

Cuevas said police ordered Kinsey and the patient, who was sitting in the street playing with a toy truck, to lie on the ground.

Kinsey is seen in the video footage across US media outlets lying down with his hands up while trying to get his patient to comply.

Kinsey can be heard in the mobile phone footage saying, “All he has is a toy truck. A toy truck. I am a behaviour therapist at a group home.”

He is also heard asking his patient to calm down. “Rinaldo, please be still, Rinaldo. Sit down, Rinaldo. Lay on your stomach.”

Cuevas said an officer then fired three times, hitting Kinsey in the leg.

New video shows moments before @NorthMiamiPD shot unarmed man with hands in air: https://t.co/YbXRNBaDVR @BrianEntin https://t.co/UKHHIYd00z — WSVN 7 News (@wsvn) July 20, 2016

Kinsey told WSVN-TV: “When I went to the ground, I’m going to the ground just like this here with my hands up, 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.”

Speaking from his hospital bed, Kinsey said he was trying to calm his autistic patient.

Kinsey recalled the incident, saying: “I’m like this right here, and when he shot me, it was so surprising.”

“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,” he added.

Kinsey said at the time, he was worried for his patient more than himself.

“I was really more worried about him than myself. I was thinking as long as I have my hands up … they’re not going to shoot me. This is what I’m thinking, they’re not going to shoot me. Wow, was I wrong,” he said.

The video footage shows police immediately coming over after he was shot, and patting him down before putting him in handcuffs.

“They flipped me over, and I’m laying down on the concrete..,” Kinsey said.

Thomas Matthews, 73, said he watched the lead up to the shooting through binoculars. He said he tried to tell an officer that the autistic man had a toy truck but she told him to get back.

“If she would have told the other officers, maybe they wouldn’t have shot,” said Matthews, an 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.

North Miami Police Chief Gary Eugene said the investigation had been turned over to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the local state lawyer. He called it a “very sensitive matter” and promised a transparent investigation, but he refused to identify the officer or answer reporters’ questions.

The 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 aftermath of Castile’s shooting, prompting nationwide protests over the treatment of blacks by police.