Race Soldier Minnesota Cop Charged with Manslaughter: Stopped Philando Castile "b/c of the wide set nose” & then Shot Him to Death
/From [HERE] A Minnesota race soldier police officer has been charged with manslaughter in the killing of a black man whose death was live streamed by his distraught girlfriend.
Jeronimo Yanez fatally shot Philando Castile, 32, during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights, a suburb of St Pauls, in July. The dead man’s final words were: “I wasn’t reaching for it.” The stop took place on Larpenteur Avenue at Fry Street, just outside the Minnesota state fairgrounds, at about 9:05 p.m. Riding in a 1997 white Oldsmobile with Castile were his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, and her four-year-old daughter. Castile was the driver, Reynolds was the front-seat passenger, and the child was in the back seat. "According to investigators, Yanez approached the car from the driver's side, while Kauser approached it from the passenger side."
At some point in the next 103 seconds—which are not covered by the audio—Yanez fatally shot Castile.
The events that occurred immediately following the shooting were streamed live in a 10-minute video by Reynolds via Facebook. The recording appears to begin seconds after Castile was shot, just after 9:00 p.m. CDT. The video depicts Castile slumped over, moaning and moving slightly, with a bloodied left arm and side. In the video, Reynolds is speaking with Yanez and explaining what happened. Reynolds stated on the video that Yanez "asked him for license and registration. He told him that it was in his wallet, but he had a pistol on him because he's licensed to carry." Castile did have a license to carry a gun. Reynolds further narrated that the officer said, "Don't move" and as Castile was putting his hands back up, the officer shot him in the arm four or five times. Reynolds told the officer, "You shot four bullets into him, sir. He was just getting his license and registration, sir." Reynolds also said "Please don't tell me he's dead," while Yanez exclaims: "I told him not to reach for it! I told him to get his hand open!"
At one point in the video footage, an officer orders Reynolds to get on her knees and the sound of Reynolds being handcuffed can be heard. Reynolds's phone falls onto the ground but continues recording, and an officer periodically yells, "Fuck!" The day following the shooting, Reynolds said that police had "treated me like a criminal ... like it was my fault." By the afternoon following Castile's death, the video had been viewed nearly 2.5 million times on Facebook. Reynolds, who was detained with Castile during the shooting around 9:00 p.m. CDT, was taken into custody and questioned at a police station then released the following morning around 5:00 a.m.
According to police and emergency audio of the aftermath obtained by the Star Tribune, at 9:06 p.m., Kauser called in the shooting, reporting: "Shots fired. Larpenteur and Fry." The dispatcher states, "Copy. You just heard it?" Yanez exclaims, "Code three!" Many officers then rush to the scene. One officer reports, "One adult female being taken into custody. Driver at gunpoint. Juvenile female, child, is with [another officer]. We need a couple other squads to block off intersections." Another officer called in, "All officers are good. One suspect that needs medics."
Reynolds said that officers had failed to check Castile for a pulse or to render first aid, and instead comforted the crying officer who fired the shots. Reynolds stated that Castile received no medical attention until paramedics arrived more than ten minutes after the shooting.[18][30] A resident living across the street from the site of the shooting took a brief video showing an unidentified officer administering first aid on Castile before the arrival of paramedics.[31]
Mr Yanez was not arrested, but he was given a summons to appear in court Friday. He faces up to 10 years in prison on the manslaughter charge if convicted.
Ramsey County prosecutor John Choi said he had decided that the use of deadly force was not justified.
“I know my decision will be difficult for some in our community to accept' on pending decision on whether officer Jeronimo Yanez was justified in using deadly force against Philando Castile,” he said.
The aftermath of the July 6 shooting was streamed live on Facebook by Mr Castile’s girlfriend, who was with him in the car along with her young daughter.
The woman said Mr Castile was shot several times while reaching for his ID after telling Mr Yanez he had a gun permit and was armed, the Associated Press said.
Mr Yanez’s lawyer, Tom Kelly, has said the officer, who is Latino, was reacting to the presence of a gun, and that one reason he pulled over Mr Castile was because he thought he looked like a possible match for an armed robbery suspect.
But family members have claimed that Mr Castile, an elementary school cafeteria worker, was racially profiled.
On police scanner audio, obtained by local NBC affiliate KARE, an officer can be heard racially profiling Philando Castile and his fiancé moments before they were pulled over by St. Anthony police in Minnesota.
“I’m going to stop a car,” the officer says on the recording. “I’m going to check IDs. I have reason to pull it over.”
“The two occupants just look like people that were involved in a robbery,” the officer says. “The driver looks more like one of our suspects, just ‘cause of the wide set nose,” the officer continues. [MORE]
Mr Castile's mother, Valerie Castile, said she welcomed the prosecutor's charges and understood why a more severe charge might be too difficult to convict the officer on.
“We have got to this point, and it is necessary for everyone to understand we want peace. We don't want protests to get outrageous,” she said. “I'm just glad we have come to this chapter — it's a beginning to a different chapter.”
