Alan Gomez

USA TODAY

MIAMI — The officer who shot an unarmed black man in North Miami this week did so accidentally after aiming at another man who turned out to be an autistic patient holding a toy truck, according to the police union representing the officer.

John Rivera, president of the Dade County Police Benevolent Association, said during a press conference Thursday that a North Miami police officer felt Charles Kinsey's life was in danger when he decided to fire. Kinsey, a behavioral therapist, was trying to comfort an autistic patient who wandered away from his group home on Monday.

Cell phone video shows Kinsey lying on his back with his arms in the air pleading with officers not to fire. Rivera said officers could not hear Kinsey's pleas and believed that the autistic man was holding a gun and was about to fire. Because of that, the officer was trying to shoot the autistic man, but he missed - and the bullet struck Kinsey instead, according to Rivera.

"Mr. Kinsey did everything right," Rivera said. "What the officer didn't know (were) the white individual's intentions. He thought Mr. Kinsey was about to be killed."

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Rivera said coverage of the case has unfairly portrayed the officer as yet another "rogue cop" shooting a black suspect for no reason. Rivera said the officer, a member of North Miami's SWAT team, was devastated by the shooting and was acting only to try and save Kinsey.

"This is not a case of police abuse," Rivera said. "This is a case where a police officer was trying to save Mr. Kinsey's life and unfortunately his shot went astray."

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During a brief press conference Thursday, North Miami Police Chief Gary Eugene the officer, a 30-year-old Hispanic male who had been with the department four years, was placed on administrative leave - standard procedure following officer-involved shootings. Eugene would not provide further details on the shooting because the case was turned over to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

"While it may seem that this is adding more time to the process, it is indeed the process under Florida law," Eugene said, according to The Miami Herald. "I assure you well will get all the answers."

Rivera asked for members of the public to let the investigation run its course before deciding the fate of the officer who fired at Kinsey. He read a short statement that the officer sent to him in a text message.

"I took this job to save lives and help people," the text read. "I did what I had to do in a split second to accomplish that and hate to hear others paint me as something I am not."

Kinsey remained at a local hospital Thursday recovering from the gunshot wound to his leg.