Man fatally shot by police in Minnesota; video investigated

World Today

Diamond Reynolds, the girlfriend of Philando Castile, weeps during a press conference at the Governor’sResidence in St. Paul, Minn., Thursday, July 7, 2016. (Leila Navidi/Star Tribune via AP)

A police officer fatally shot a man in a car, and a woman in the vehicle apparently livestreamed the aftermath in a widely shared Facebook video that shows her telling the camera that her boyfriend had just been shot “for no apparent reason.”

The shooting happened late Wednesday during a traffic stop in the St. Paul suburb of Falcon Heights. The interim police chief in nearby St. Anthony, Jon Mangseth, said he was aware of the video but had not seen it. He did not have details about the reason for the stop.

No one else was injured, he said.

FACEBOOK LIVE OF PHILANDO CASTILE SHOOTING — (WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT)

 

In the video, the woman describes being pulled over for a “busted tail light” and says her boyfriend had told the officer he was carrying a gun for which he was licensed. She says he was shot as he reached for his wallet.

The woman who posted the video is named Lavish Reynolds. The video also shows a small girl in the car and later standing with the woman who was subsequently handcuffed. The girl can be heard saying to the distraught woman: “It’s okay mommy, I’m here.”

CCTV America’s Jim Spellman reports

The video appeared to be genuine, but The Associated Press could not immediately verify it with family members, and authorities did not confirm its authenticity.

As word of the shooting spread, relatives of the man joined scores of people who gathered at the scene and outside the hospital where the man died. They identified him as Philando Castile of St. Paul, a 32-year-old cafeteria supervisor at a Montessori school.

Castile’s girlfriend said Thursday that he was killed even though he complied with the officer’s instructions. Diamond Reynolds told reporters that Castile did “nothing but what the police officer asked of us, which was to put your hands in the air and get your license and registration.”

Speaking to CNN early Thursday, Castile’s mother said she suspected she would never learn the whole truth about her son’s death.

Screenshot of the Facebook Live video taken by Lavish Reynolds

Screenshot of the Facebook Live video taken by Lavish Reynolds

“I think he was just black in the wrong place,” Valerie Castile said, adding that she had underlined to her children to that they must do what authorities tell them to do to survive.

“I know my son … we know black people have been killed … I always told them, whatever you do when you get stopped by police, comply, comply, comply.”

Castile’s exact age was not immediately clear. Relatives said he was 32. Reynolds said he was to turn 35 later this month.

Police did not release any details about the officer who fired except to say he had been placed on paid administrative leave. Reynolds described him as Asian.

Hilary Shelton on increased frequency of police shootings

To discuss police-involved shootings, CCTV America’s Mike Walter spoke to Hilary Shelton, director to the NAACP’s Washington Bureau and senior vice president for Advocacy and Policy.

It was the second fatal shooting this week, coming only days after a black 37-year-old man was killed by officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Alton Sterling’s death was caught on video.

On Wednesday, the Justice Department launched a civil rights investigation into Sterling’s shooting, which took place after he scuffled with two white police officers outside a convenience store.

About 200 people gathered outside the Minnesota Governor's Residence in St. Paul, Thursday, July 7, 2016, protesting the fatal shooting of a man by a suburban police officer. (AP Photo/Jeff Baenen)

About 200 people gathered outside the Minnesota Governor’s Residence in St. Paul, Thursday, July 7, 2016, protesting the fatal shooting of a man by a suburban police officer. (AP Photo/Jeff Baenen)

In a written statement, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton said he asked the White House to begin a Justice Department probe into Castile’s death. The state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension opened its own independent investigation overnight, he said.

In Minnesota, Castile’s cousin, Antonio Johnson, told the Star Tribune that because Castile was a black man driving in a largely middle-class suburb, he “was immediately criminally profiled and he lost his life over it.”

Professor James Braxton Peterson discusses police-involved shootings

For more on police shootings involving black men, CCTV America’s Asieh Namdar was joined by James Braxton Peterson, associate professor of English and director of Africana Studies, from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.

The site of the shooting in Falcon Heights is close to the Minnesota State Fairgrounds and not far from a clutch of fields associated with the University of Minnesota’s agricultural campus.

Late Wednesday, protesters moved to the governor’s mansion in nearby St. Paul, where around 200 people chanted and demanded action from Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton. By daybreak Thursday, around 50 protesters remained outside the mansion despite a light rain.

The video posted Wednesday night on Facebook Live shows the woman in a car next to a bloodied man slumped in a seat. A clearly distraught person who appears to be an armed police officer stands at the car’s window, telling the woman to keep her hands where they are and intermittently swearing.

Mangseth said he was “made aware there was a livestream on Facebook” but that he had not yet seen the video and didn’t know anything about its contents.

The officer tells her to keep her hands up and says: “I told him not to reach for it. I told him to get his hand out.”

A crowd gathers at the scene of a shooting of a man involving a St. Anthony Police officer on Wednesday, July 6, 2016, in Falcon Heights, Minn. (Leila Navidi/Star Tribune via AP)

A crowd gathers at the scene of a shooting of a man involving a St. Anthony Police officer on Wednesday, July 6, 2016, in Falcon Heights, Minn. (Leila Navidi/Star Tribune via AP)

“You shot four bullets into him, sir. He was just getting his license and registration, sir,” the woman responds.

The video goes on to show the woman exiting the car and being handcuffed.

The woman describes being put in the back seat of the police car and says, “The police just shot my boyfriend for no apparent reason.”

Clarence Castile spoke to the Star Tribune from the Hennepin County Medical Center, where he said his nephew died minutes after arriving.

He said Philando Castile had worked in the J.J. Hill school cafeteria for 12 to 15 years, “cooking for the little kids.” He said his nephew was “a good kid” who grew up in St. Paul.

Minnesota court records online show Castile had some misdemeanor violations, mainly related to driving.

The president of the Minneapolis NAACP, Nekima Levy-Pounds, told the crowd she has no faith in the system in the wake of this and other police shootings of black men, including last year’s killing of Jamar Clark in Minneapolis. Levy-Pounds was a leading voice during the protests outside a police station that followed Clark’s death, as well as during a renewed wave of protests after prosecutors decided not to charge the officers involved.

“I’m tired of the laws and policies on the books being used to justify murder,” Levy-Pounds, a civil rights attorney, told the crowd as rain began to fall. “This is completely unacceptable. Somebody say, ‘Enough is Enough.'”

Latoya Francis-Williams discusses officer-involved shootings

For the latest on the police-involved shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota, CCTV America’s Mike Walter spoke to Latoya Francis-Williams, an attorney based in Baltimore.

Obama: ‘All Americans should be troubled’ by pair of fatal police shootings