Shooting of Philando Castile

On July 6, 2016, Philando Castile was shot and killed by Jeronimo Yanez, a St. Anthony, Minnesota, police officer, after being pulled over in Falcon Heights, a suburb of Saint Paul. Castile was in a car with his gf, Diamond Reynolds, and her four-year-old daughter when he was pulled over by Yanez and another officer. [1] [Two]

Two counts of dangerous discharge of a firearm

The shooting achieved a high profile [Trio] from a live-streamed movie on Facebook made by Diamond Reynolds in the instant aftermath of the shooting. [Four] It shows her interacting with the armed officer as a mortally injured Castile lies slumped over, groaning slightly and his left arm and side bloody. [Five] The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s office said he had sustained numerous gunshot wounds and reported that Castile died at 9:37 p.m. CDT in the emergency room of the Hennepin County Medical Center, about twenty minutes after being shot. [6]

According to Reynolds’ testimony and a police dashcam movie/audio, Castile told the officer he had a firearm and had one forearm in his pants pocket after being asked for his license and registration. [7] Reynolds said Castile was shot while reaching for his ID after telling Yanez he was armed. [8] The officer shot at Castile seven times.

On November 16, 2016, John Choi, the Ramsey County Attorney, announced that Yanez was being charged with three felonies: one count of second-degree manslaughter and two counts of dangerous discharge of a firearm. Choi said, “I would submit that no reasonable officer knowing, watching, and hearing what Officer Yanez did at the time would have used deadly force under these circumstances.” [9]

Yanez was acquitted of all charges on June 16, 2017. [Ten] [11] The same day, he was fired by the City of Saint Anthony. [12]

Contents

Victim

Philando Divall Castile (July 16, one thousand nine hundred eighty three – July 6, 2016) was thirty two years old at the time of his death. [13] [14] Castile was born in St. Louis, Missouri. [15] He graduated from Saint Paul Central High School in two thousand one and worked for the Saint Paul Public School District from two thousand two until his death. Castile began as a nutrition services assistant at Chelsea Heights Elementary School and Arlington High School (now Washington Technology Magnet School). He was promoted to nutrition services supervisor at J. J. Hill Montessori Magnet School, in August 2014. [Four] [13] Prior to the shooting, Castile had been stopped by the police fifty two times for minor traffic infractions. [16] [17]

Police

Jeronimo Yanez was identified by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension as the officer who shot Castile. The other officer involved in the traffic stop was identified as Joseph Kauser, [Legal] who was described as Yanez’s playmate. [Nineteen] Both officers had been with the St. Anthony Police Department for four years at the time of the shooting, [Nineteen] and were longtime friends who had graduated together from the Minnesota State University, Mankato police academy in 2010. [20]

Yanez, of South St. Paul, was twenty eight years old at the time of the shooting. [21] [22]

The St. Anthony Police Department has twenty three officers. Eight officers are funded through policing contracts with the cities of Lauderdale and Falcon Heights. [Nineteen] In a press briefing at the scene, St. Anthony’s interim police chief Jon Mangseth said that the shooting was the very first officer-involved shooting that the department had experienced in at least thirty years. [1] [Four]

Castile was pulled over as part of a traffic stop [23] by Yanez and Kauser in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, a suburb of Saint Paul. [7] [Four] [Nineteen] Castile and Reynolds were returning from shopping at a grocery store; earlier that evening, Castile had gone for a haircut, eaten dinner with his sister, and evidently picked up his gf from his apartment in St. Paul. [24]

A St. Anthony police officer patrolling Larpenteur Avenue radioed to a nearby squad that he planned to pull over the car and check the IDs of the driver and passenger, telling, “The two occupants just look like people that were involved in a robbery. The driver looks more like one of our suspects, just because of the wide-set nose. I couldn’t get a good look at the passenger.” [25] [26] At 9:04 p.m. CDT, the officer told a nearby officer that he would wait for him to make the stop. [25]

The stop took place on Larpenteur Avenue at Fry Street, [1] just outside the Minnesota state fairgrounds, [27] at about 9:05 p.m. CDT. [28] Railing in a one thousand nine hundred ninety seven [25] white Oldsmobile [23] [29] with Castile were his gf, Diamond Reynolds, and her four-year-old daughter. [1] [Two] Castile was the driver, Reynolds was the front-seat passenger, and the child was in the back seat. [Five] “According to investigators, Yanez approached the car from the driver’s side, while Kauser approached it from the passenger side.” [28]

The police dashcam movie [30] shows that forty seconds elapsed inbetween when Yanez very first began talking to Castile through the car window and when Yanez began shooting at him. According to the dashcam, after Yanez asked for Castile’s driver’s license and proof of insurance, Castile gave him his proof of insurance card, which Yanez appeared to glance at and tuck in his outer pocket. Castile then calmly informed Yanez: “Tormentor, I have to tell you that I do have a firearm on me.” [31] Quoting the Starlet Tribune description of the next thirteen seconds of the audio/movie:

Before Castile finished the sentence, Yanez interrupted and calmly replied, ‘OK’, and placed his right palm on the holster of his own holstered weapon. Yanez said, ‘Okay, don’t reach for it, then.’ Castile responded, ‘I’m not pulling it out,’ and Reynolds also said, ‘He’s not pulling it out.’ Yanez screamed, ‘Don’t pull it out!’ Yanez quickly pulled his own gun with his right palm while he reached inwards the driver’s window with his left forearm. Yanez liquidated his left arm from the car and fired seven shots in the direction of Castile in rapid succession. Reynolds yelled, ‘You just killed my bf!’ Castile groaned and said, ‘I wasn’t reaching for it.’ Reynolds loudly said, ‘He wasn’t reaching for it.’ Before she ended her sentence, Yanez again screamed, ‘Don’t pull it out!’ Reynolds responded, ‘He wasn’t.’ Yanez yelled, ‘Don’t budge! Fuck!’ [31]

Of the seven shots fired by Yanez at point blank range, five hit Castile and two of those hit and pierced his heart. [32]

The events that occurred instantaneously following the shooting were streamed live in a 10-minute movie by Reynolds via Facebook. [Five] The recording emerges to begin seconds after Castile was shot, just after 9:00 p.m. CDT. [Four] The movie depicts Castile slumped over, groaning and moving slightly, with a bloodied left arm and side. [Five] In the movie, Reynolds is speaking with Yanez and explaining what happened. Reynolds stated on the movie 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. [33] Reynolds further narrated that the officer said, “Don’t stir” and as Castile was putting his forearms back up, the officer shot him in the arm four or five times. Reynolds told the officer, “You shot four bullets into him, master. He was just getting his license and registration, tormentor.” [1] [7] 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 mitt open!” [25]

At one point in the movie footage, an officer orders Reynolds to get on her knees and the sound of Reynolds being cuffed can be heard. Reynolds’ phone falls onto the ground but proceeds recording, and an officer periodically yells, “Fuck!” [34] Audio/movie from the squad car of Joseph Kauser (where Reynolds and her daughter were put after Reynolds was manacled), shows Reynolds’ daughter telling her, “Mom, please stop cussing and screaming ’cause I don’t want you to get shooted”. [35]

The day following the shooting, Reynolds said that police had “treated me like a criminal . like it was my fault.” [23] By the afternoon following Castile’s death, the movie had been viewed almost Two.Five million times on Facebook. [36] 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 Five:00 a.m. [37] [38]

According to police and emergency audio of the aftermath obtained by the Starlet Tribune, at 9:06 p.m., Kauser called in the shooting, reporting: “Shots fired. Larpenteur and Fry.” The dispatcher answered: “Copy. You just heard it?” Yanez then screamed: “Code three!” in a tone of voice the newspaper termed “audibly panicked.” Many officers then rushed 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 duo other squads to block off intersections.” Another officer called in, “All officers are good. One suspect that needs medics.” [25]

Reynolds said that officers had failed to check Castile for a pulse or to see if he was breathing for several minutes after the shooting, and instead comforted the officer who fired the shots. [23]

Yanez statements

In the dashcam audio/movie of the incident Yanez can be heard being questioned by St. Anthony Police Officer Tressa Sunde within minutes of the shooting, and telling her:

[Castile] was sitting in the car, seat belted. I told him, ‘Can I see your license?’ And then, he told me he had a firearm. I told him not to reach for it and (breathe) when he went down to grab, I told him not to reach for it (clears mouth) and then he kept it right there, and I told him to take his forearms off of it, and then he (breathe) he had his, his grip a lot broader than a wallet . And I don’t know where the gun was, he didn’t tell me where the fucking gun was, and then it was just getting hinky, he gave, he was just staring ahead, and then I was getting fucking jumpy, and then I told him, I know I fucking told him to get his fucking arm off his gun. [39]

According to the official Minnesota Department of Public Safety’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) transcript of the interview of Yanez and his attorneys Tom Kelly and Robert Fowler, Yanez stated that his justification for the shooting was based on fear for his own life because he believed that Castile’s behavior was abusive toward a youthful chick passenger (Reynolds’ daughter) in the car. [40] Yanez said: “I thought, I was gonna die, and I thought if he’s, if he has the, the guts and the audacity to smoke marijuana in front of the five-year-old dame and risk her lungs and risk her life by providing her secondhand smoke and the front seat passenger doing the same thing, then what, what care does he give about me?” [40] The victims’ previous marijuana use later became a concentrate of the defense, with a mason jar containing a puny amount having been found in the car. [41]

According to the local publication City Pages description of the BCA conversation, Yanez “could never state definitively . that he spotted a firearm that day”. Yanez uses “various terms to suggest the presence of a firearm”. Yanez states, “it appeared to me that he was wrapping something around his fingers and almost like if I were to put my mitt around my gun. It was dark inwards the vehicle . ” At another point “it seemed like he was pulling out a gun and the barrel just kept coming.” “I know he had an object and it was dark. And he was pulling it out with his right mitt.” He added: “It was, to me, it just looked big and apparent that he’s gonna shoot you, he’s gonna kill you.” [39]

However, in his court testimony almost a year later, Yanez was definitive, testified that he was “able to see the firearm in Mr. Castile’s palm,” and was compelled to shoot him. However, the gun was still in Castile’s pocket when paramedics were preparing to geyser his fatally wounded bod into an ambulance. [39] [42] [43]

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s office ruled Castile’s death a homicide and said that he had sustained numerous gunshot wounds. [Five] The office reported that Castile died at 9:37 p.m. CDT in the emergency room of the Hennepin County Medical Center, about twenty minutes after being shot. [1] [Five] On July 14, Castile was buried following a funeral service at the Cathedral of Saint Paul, attended by “thousands of mourners, diverse in race, gender and age.” [44]

Statements of attorneys for Yanez and Castile family

The reasonableness of the initial traffic stop, and the facts of what occurred in the one hundred three seconds of the stop (inbetween the end of the pre-stop police dispatcher radio and the beginning of Reynolds’ recording) were “hotly disputed” almost instantly after the shooting occurred. [25] On July 9, Yanez’s attorney, Thomas Kelly of Minneapolis, said his client “reacted to the presence of that gun and the display of that gun” and that the shooting “had nothing to do with race. This had everything to do with the presence of a gun.” [45]

In the movie recorded shortly after the shooting, Reynolds said that the car was pulled over for a cracked taillight. [1] Yanez’ attorney Kelly stated following the shooting that his client stopped Castile in part because he resembled a suspect in an armed robbery that had taken place nearby four days earlier, and in part because of a cracked taillight. A Castile family attorney, Albert Goins, questioned this account, said that if Yanez actually thought Castile was a robbery suspect, the police would have made a “felony traffic stop” (involving “bringing the suspect out at gunpoint while officers are in a position of cover and having them lie on the ground until they can identify who that individual is”) rather than an ordinary traffic stop (in which officers stop the car and ask the driver to produce documents). Goins said, “Either [Castile] was a robbery suspect and [Yanez] didn’t go after the procedures for a felony stop, or [Castile] was not a robbery suspect and [Yanez] shot a man because he stood at his window getting his information.” [46]

Kelly confirmed the authenticity of the pre-stop police audio, in which one officer reports that the driver resembled a latest robbery suspect due to his “wide-set nose.” The particular robbery to which the officer referred was unclear, but may have been a July two armed robbery at a local convenience store, in which the two suspects were “described as black fellows with shoulder-length or longer dreadlocks” with no information about estimated height, weight or ages. Goins said, “I can’t imagine that it’s reasonable suspicion to make a stop because somebody had a broad nose.” [25]

Castile’s mother Valerie Castile and her lawyer Glenda Hatchett called for the case to be referred to a special prosecutor and called for the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct a federal investigation. [24]

Protests and civil unrest

By 12:30 a.m. on July 7, about three hours after the shooting, protesters gathered at the scene, “peaceful but visibly angry”. [1] More than two hundred people were present. [47] After news of Castile’s death spread, crowds of protestors gathered outside the Minnesota Governor’s Residence in St. Paul, chanting Castile’s name and requesting that Governor Mark Dayton make a statement. [Four] [47] That night, demonstrations in St. Paul continued, remaining “peaceful but forceful”. [48]

Nekima Levy-Pounds, president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP, said that her group would request a federal investigation. She also called for an independent assets to investigate the shooting, voicing skepticism with the state agency that is leading the investigation of the incident, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, a division of the Department of Public Safety. [1] [23] NAACP president Cornell William Brooks said, “I’m waiting to hear the human outcry from 2nd Amendment defenders over [this incident]. ” [49] Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson said, “Philando Castile should be alive today”. [Four] On July 8, over 1,000 demonstrators shut down Interstate eight hundred eighty in Oakland, California, for several hours to protest Castile’s shooting death and that of Alton Sterling the day before. [50]

After a week of peaceful protests and vigils, violence inbetween protesters and police in St. Paul broke out on July nine and Ten. Some one hundred two people were arrested and twenty one officers (15 police officers and six Minnesota State Patrol officers) had been injured, one of them gravely. A group threw rocks, bottles, and Molotov cocktails at police and police used pepper dump and rip gas to disperse the crowd. [22] [51] The protesters caused Interstate ninety four in inbetween Minnesota State Highway two hundred eighty and downtown St. Paul to be closed. After they were dispersed from the highway, another group of protests took place at Dale and Grand Avenue. [51] The violence was condemned by President Obama, Governor Dayton, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, and Police Chief Todd Axtell, who called for peaceful. [22] [51]

After the shooting, a number of activists established an encampment outside of the Governor’s Residence. On July Eighteen, demonstrators cleared the encampment and moved off the road after police directed them to stir, telling that they could proceed to protest “as long as it was done on the sidewalk” and did not impede vehicle or pedestrian traffic. The interactions inbetween police and demonstrators were peaceful, and no arrests were made. [52]

On July Nineteen, twenty one protesters—mostly members of the St. Paul and Minneapolis teachers’ federations—were arrested willingly at a protest in Minneapolis after blocking a street in Minneapolis and refusing orders to disperse. The teachers marched from the Minneapolis Convention Center (where an American Federation of Teachers convention was being held) to the Nicollet Mall area; they were cited for misdemeanor public nuisance and released. [53] [54]

Government officials

Later in the morning of July 7, Governor Dayton appeared outside his residence and said: [1] [23]

My deepest condolences go out to the family and friends. On behalf of all decent-minded Minnesotans, we are shocked and horrified by what occurred last night. This kind of behavior is unacceptable. It is not the norm in Minnesota. I promise . to see that this matter is brought to justice and all avenues are pursued and do a accomplish investigation. Justice will be served in Minnesota.

Dayton said he had requested an independent U.S. Department of Justice investigation and had spoken to White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough about the matter. [Four] Dayton also commented, “Would this have happened if those passengers would have been white? I don’t think it would have.” [55] He promised to “do everything in my power to help protect the integrity” of the ongoing parallel state investigation “to ensure a decent and just outcome for all involved.” [56]

U.S. Representative Betty McCollum, Democrat of Minnesota, whose district includes the place where Castile was shot, also called for a Justice Department investigation, [57] and U.S. Senator Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota, also called for a federal investigation, telling in a statement: “I am horrified that we are coerced to confront yet another death of a youthfull African-American man at the arms of law enforcement. And I am heartbroken for Philando’s family and loved ones, whose son, brother, beau, and nephew was taken from them last night.” [58] U.S. Representative Keith Ellison, Democrat of Minnesota, denounced the “systematic targeting of African Americans and a systematic lack of accountability.” [Four]

Speaking shortly after the shootings of Castile and Alton Sterling, President Barack Obama did not comment on the specific incidents, but called on the U.S. to “do better” and said that controversial incidents arising from the police use of force were “not isolated incidents” but rather were “symptomatic of a broader set of racial disparities that exist in our criminal justice system”. Obama voiced “extreme appreciation and respect for the vast majority of police officers” and noted the difficult nature of the job. [59] He stated, “When incidents like this occur, there’s a big chunk of our citizenry that feels as if, because of the color of their skin, they are not being treated the same, and that hurts, and that should trouble all of us. This is not just a black issue, not just a Hispanic issue. This is an American issue that we all should care about.” [Five] Obama telephoned Castile’s mother to suggest his condolences. [24]

International response

Following the shooting of Castile, Sterling, and police officers in Dallas, the Bahamian government, a Caribbean island nation with an over 90% citizenry of Afro-Bahamian origin, issued a travel advisory to its citizens in the United States, stating “[i]n particular youthfull [Bahamian] masculines are asked to exercise extreme caution in affected cities in their interactions with the police. Do not be confrontational and cooperate”. [60] [61] [62] Travel advisories were also issued by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, [63] [64] warning for caution in the United States due to ongoing violence and the U.S. “gun culture”, and to avoid crowded areas, protests, and demonstrations as “civil disorder can result”. [60]

Philando Castile Memorial Scholarship

In honor of Castile, the Philando Castile Memorial Scholarship has been commenced at St. Paul Central High School. The very first annual $Five,000 award was given to Marques Watson in 2017. [65]

Official investigation

The day after the fatal shooting, the St. Anthony Police Department identified the officer who fired the fatal shots as Yanez. He and his playmate Kauser were placed on paid administrative leave. [66]

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) was the lead agency in charge of the investigation. [23] Two days following the shooting, Ramsey County Attorney John Choi called for a “prompt and thorough” investigation into the shooting. [66] He said that he had not determined whether he would use a grand jury, but stated that if either a grand jury or prosecutors in his office determined that charges were adequate, he would “prosecute this case to the fullest extent of the law.” Choi also said, “We need to come together as a community, law enforcement included, to improve our practices and procedures so we don’t practice any more of these tragedies ever again.” [67]

The BCA said that squad-car movie and “several” other movies had been collected as evidence. St. Anthony police do not wear bod cameras. [68] On September 28, 2016, the BCA announced that it had finished its investigation and turned over its findings to Ramsey County Attorney John Choi. Prosecutors in the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office would determine whether to file charges in the shooting or bring the case to a grand jury. [Sixty nine]

Charges and prosecution

Choi reviewed the evidence with assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s office, [70] a retired deputy chief of police in Irvine, California, [71] and a former federal prosecutor. [72] Seven weeks after receiving the BCA report, Choi announced that Yanez was being charged with 2nd degree manslaughter and two counts of dangerous discharge of a firearm. Choi stated:

To justify the use of deadly force, it is not enough, however, for the police officer to merely express a subjective fear of death or good bodily harm. Unreasonable fear cannot justify the use of deadly force. The use of deadly force must be objectively reasonable and necessary, given the totality of the circumstances. Based upon our thorough and exhaustive review of the facts of this case, it is my conclusion that the use of deadly force by Officer Yanez was not justified, and that sufficient facts exist to prove that to be true. Accordingly, we filed a criminal complaint this morning in Ramsey County. [73]

In his press conference announcing his decision to prosecute Yanez, Choi noted facts not consistent with a justified fear of Castile, namely that Yanez’s playmate, Officer Kauser, who was standing at the car’s passenger window during the shooting, “did not touch or eliminate his gun from its holster”, and that in his answers to questioning by Saint Anthony Police Officer Tressa Sunde instantly after the shooting, Yanez “stated he did not know where [Castile’s] gun was”. [72] Choi also noted that

• “Philando Castile was not resisting or fleeing.”
• “There was absolutely no criminal intent exhibited by him across this encounter.”
• “He was respectful and compliant based upon the instructions and orders he was given.”
• “He volunteered in good faith that he had a firearm — beyond what the law requires.”
• “He emphatically stated that he wasn’t pulling it out.”
• “His movement was restricted by his own seat belt.”
• “He was accompanied, in his vehicle, by a woman and a youthful child.”
• “Philando Castile did not exhibit any intent, nor did he have any reason, to shoot Officer Yanez.”
• “In fact, his dying words were in protest that he wasn’t reaching for his gun.” [72]

According to author and former FBI agent Larry Brubaker, who has written two books on officer-involved shootings, “this is the very first time an officer has been charged for a fatal shooting in Minnesota in more than two hundred cases that spanned over three decades”. [74]

Trial and verdict

The trial of Jeronimo Yanez began May 30, two thousand seventeen under Judge William H. Leary III. [75] On June 16, 2017, Officer Yanez was acquitted of all charges. He had been charged with manslaughter and reckless discharge of a firearm. [76]

After five days and more than twenty five hours of deliberation, the jury determined that the state had not met its cargo for a conviction. Yanez would have faced up to ten years under Minnesota law if he had been convicted. The jury that determined Yanez’s fate consisted of seven boys and five women. Two jurors were black. [77] Following the acquittal, a jury member told the press that the specific wording of the law regarding culpable negligence was the main factor among many leading to the verdict. [78]

Aftermath of verdict

The day the verdict was announced, the city of St. Anthony announced that “the public will be best served if Officer Yanez is no longer a police officer in our city”, and that he would not be returning to the police department from leave after the trial. “The city intends to suggest Officer Yanez a voluntary separation agreement to help him transition to another career other than being a St. Anthony officer. 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 comeback to active duty.” [Three]

Some Two,000 protesters marched in the streets, eventually blocking Interstate 94, where eighteen people were arrested, including at least one reporter. [79] [80] [81]

Members of the Castile family, who had worked closely with authorities across the trial, voiced shock and outrage at the verdict, decrying a loss of faith in the system. Albeit they had earlier discussed a federal civil rights lawsuit, on June 26, 2017, the family released a joint statement with the city of St. Anthony announcing a settlement worth $Two.995 million. [82]

On June 20, 2017, Dashcam footage seen by investigators and members of the courtroom during the trial was released to public. [83] On June 21, 2017, Ramsey County released extra evidence, including footage taken inwards Yanez’s squad car which shows Diamond Reynolds’ daughter comforting her mother after the shooting. [84]

The NRA, which advocates for gun rights, had issued a statement after the shooting telling: “The reports from Minnesota are troubling and must be scrupulously investigated. In the meantime, it is significant for the NRA not to comment while the investigation is ongoing. Rest assured, the NRA will have more to say once all the facts are known.” After the acquittal of Yanez the group issued no statement. [85] [86]

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