Police Shooting of Philando Castile

[M.F.D.B.]

I dont know much about the circumstances other than whats in the video and that he later died.

Released police dashcam can be seen here:
https://www.documentingreality.com/f...ml#post5599224

A video posted to Facebook Wednesday night appears to show the bloody, harrowing aftermath of the police shooting of a black man, who is identified at least once in the video as "Phil" and whose identity was later confirmed as 32-year-old Philando Castile, in ****** Heights, Minnesota.

The video, which was live-streamed to Facebook by a woman who identifies online as Lavish Reynolds, opens with Castile, drenched in blood, lying nearly motionless, eyes open and breathing, in the driver's seat of a car.

Reynolds, who states in the video that she is the Castile's girlfriend, sits next to him in the passenger's side seat and narrates the events that follow.

"We got pulled over for a busted taillight in the back," Reynolds says in the beginning of the Facebook Live video. "The police just, just...he's covered."

"He's licensed to carry," Reynolds explains of Castile, "He was trying to get out his ID and his wallet out his pocket, and he let the officer know that he had a firearm, and he was reaching for his wallet, and the officer just shot him in his arm."

"I told him not to reach for it, I told him to get his hands up," an audibly distressed police officer can be heard screaming outside of the car in the video.

About sixty seconds into the video, Castile appears to stop moving. "Oh my God, please don't tell me he's dead," Reynolds says, "Please don't tell me my boyfriend just went like that.



"You shot four bullets into him, sir," she continues, "He was just getting his license and registration, sir."

"They killed my boyfriend," she tells the camera.

At this point, an officer instructs Reynolds to leave the vehicle. She complies. An officer is seen ordering Reynolds to get on her knees.

The camera abruptly cuts as though dropped to a shot of the sky just before Reynolds announces that the police "threw [her] phone."

Though we no longer see Reynolds, we hear her agonized pleas.

"Please, Lord," she says off-screen, "Don't let him be gone."

At time of publishing, Reynolds' video of the incident has been either taken down from Facebook or made unavailable to anyone outside of her immediate network of Facebook friends. While it was available, it garnered over a million views and was shared over 32,000 times.

As news of its existence spread through social media, users took Twitter to express their grief and indignation over the contents of Reynolds' video.

The Minnesota police officer who fatally shot Philando Castile during a traffic stop was acquitted on all charges by a jury Friday, a decision that came nearly a year after the encounter was partially streamed online to a rapt nation in the midst of a painful reckoning over shootings by law enforcement.

Officer Jeronimo Yanez pulled Castile’s car over in ****** Heights, a suburb near Minneapolis and St. Paul, and the officer later said he thought Castile matched the description of a suspect in a robbery. The stop quickly escalated.

Yanez fired into the car, saying later he thought Castile was going for his gun, a claim Castile’s girlfriend, sitting in the seat next to him, disputed. She began streaming the aftermath of the shooting on Facebook Live.

Police officers are seldom charged for fatal on-duty shootings and convictions are even less common. Castile’s death came at a time of intense scrutiny of fatal police-involved shootings, and the viral video of his final moments spurred heated demonstrations that continued for weeks.

Outside the court, where a small group of protesters gathered Friday afternoon, Castile’s relatives denounced the jury’s decision. Castile’s mother called his death a murder and tied the verdict to what she described as systemic racism in Minnesota.

“The system continues to fail black people, and it will continue to fail you all,” Valerie Castile said, her anger building. “My son loved this city and this city killed my son. And the murderer gets away. Are you kidding me right now?”

Prosecutors charged Yanez with second-degree manslaughter in November, a felony, saying that “no reasonable officer” would have used deadly force in the same situation. He also was charged with two felony counts for intentionally discharging the gun. Jurors began deliberating Monday, and the verdict was announced Friday afternoon.

Gov. Mark Dayton (D) said the state continues to grieve with Castile’s family, calling his death “a terrible tragedy, with devastating consequences for everyone involved.”

On Friday evening, several hundred protesters amassed around the steps of the state Capitol in St. Paul to decry the verdict.

“The city intends to offer Officer Yanez a voluntary separation agreement to help him transition to another career other than being a St. Anthony officer,” the city said in a statement. “The terms of this agreement will be negotiated in the near future, so details are not available at this time. In the meantime, Officer Yanez will not return to active duty.”

Earl Gray, an attorney for Yanez, praised the jury’s decision. “The verdict was a correct verdict,” he said, speaking to reporters after he left the courthouse. “In my opinion, the case should’ve never been charged.”

Federal officials were assessing the verdict Friday, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota. That office had dispatched a career prosecutor to assist with the state’s case.

“We determined that this course of action was the strongest available avenue for a prosecution, given the higher level of intent required under the applicable federal criminal civil rights law,” the office said in a statement. “In the wake of today’s verdict, we are assessing whether any additional federal review is justified.”

During the trial, jurors heard testimony from dozens of witnesses, including Yanez, who cried on the stand while saying he did not want to shoot Castile. Yanez testified that he thought his life was in danger at the time, and attorneys for Yanez have argued that Castile caused his own death because of his actions during the traffic stop.

[M.F.D.B.]

More info...

[kellyhound]

Never seen anyone that was so "cool" in telling and filming things after such a stressful event. Even their kid was in the car.

"He was trying to get out his ID and his wallet out his pocket, and he let the officer know that he had a firearm, and he was reaching for his wallet, and the officer just shot him in his arm."

It's really better not to reach for your pocket while telling or just told you have a gun even if you tell you're gonna pull out your ID.

Cop seems to be damn nervous too.

[M.F.D.B.]

Agreed, shes in some serious shock. Once the reality set in im sure things changed. Poor child...

[5150]

As a concealed carry permit holder, in some states you are required by law to inform the cops that you are armed. However, you should never say the word "gun" to a cop. As likely happened in the case, the cop freaked out and over reacted. You should first take out your driver's license and CCW permit and hand both at the same time to the cop. Then you say "Officer, I am licensed to carry and I am carrying at this time." Then you don't move and do exactly what the cop says.

I've only been pulled over once when carrying and the cop could not have cared less that I was armed. However, if I was in a situation where a cop freaked out and pulled out his gun, I would not even blink an eye, and would do EXACTLY what he said, after verbally repeating what he asked me to, and slowly do what he said, while telling him each motion I planned to make before I made it.

We've seen other videos here where a driver is told by the cop to get his license and registration and the cop opens fire. I'm more worried about getting shot by a cop than by a bad guy!

[RealityUnfolding]

FWIW, her story changes in the same video. She starts with him being shot four times and he was getting shot, as he reached for his ID.

By the middle of the video, she says he was shot three times and he was raising his arms in the air like he was told. Then at the end, she says "four or five times" and for "no apparent reason".

A broken tail light doesn't seem like the cop would approach with weapon drawn, so unless this dude was a gunslinger at the OK Corral, I can't see how he'd reach and fire four times after asking for ID unless the dude was either doing something, or stupidly said "I have a gun" as he went for his pocket. Her story doesn't make sense, but then again, there are rare asshole power tripping cops who need to be losing their jobs to protect the good ones.

No word on officer or dash cams yet.

[RealityUnfolding]

Originally Posted by 5150

I'm more worried about getting shot by a cop than by a bad guy!

I did the math on this one day. Based on current amount of police officers in the entire US force, averaging 6 interactions per day, and the number of times people were killed in 2015, it takes roughly 40 million interactions across the whole force (assuming a 5 day work week which often isn't the case, but I digress) before someone is shot and killed.

The numbers for white, Hispanic and black crime (not whole population) match with the amount of people killed as well. The only major deviations was Asians.

The amount of people killed with previous rap sheets (not parking tickets, mind you) is something like 94% in known cases, and around 1% die of "other related causes" like Garner did, because his butt had a heart attack AFTER the arrest.

[Bletch]

And again, couldn't fucking care less...

[M.F.D.B.]

Long version added in OP

[Steve]

The cop seems to be literally crying yet she is as cool as a bag of ice, I couldn't just sit there whilst my girlfriend died right beside me I don't care what that cop ordered me to do.