Moments after Philando Castile was shot & killed by police
On July 6, 2016, Philando Castile,[a] a 32-year-old African American man, was stopped while driving and fatally shot by Jeronimo Yanez, a 29-year-old Hispanic-American police officer from St. Anthony, Minnesota.
Castile was driving with his partner Diamond Reynolds and her four-year-old daughter when at 9:00 p.m. their vehicle was pulled over by Yanez and another officer in Falcon Heights, a suburb of Saint Paul, Minnesota. After being asked for his license and registration, Castile told Officer Yanez that he had a firearm, to which Yanez replied, “Don’t reach for it then”, and Castile said “I’m, I, I was reaching for…” Yanez said “Don’t pull it out”, Castile replied “I’m not pulling it out”, and Reynolds said “He’s not…” Yanez repeated “Don’t pull it out” and then shot at Castile at close range seven times, hitting him five times. Castile died at 9:37 p.m. at Hennepin County Medical Center, about 20 minutes after being shot.
Reynolds posted a live stream video on Facebook in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, which prompted the incident to achieve national notoriety. There were local and national protests, and five months after the incident, Yanez was charged with second-degree manslaughter and two counts of dangerous discharge of a firearm. After five days of deliberation, he was acquitted of all charges on June 16, 2017 in a jury trial, and was immediately fired by the City of Saint Anthony. Wrongful death lawsuits against the City brought by Reynolds and Castile’s family were settled for $3.8 million.
