Philando Castile (1983-2016)
#DrivingWhileBlack, #BlackGunOwner, #AmINext, #NeverInnocent, #DutyofCare
On July 6, 2016, Philando Castile was shot and killed by St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez in the City of Falcon Heights, MN during a traffic stop. Castile, accompanied by his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, and her 4-year-old daughter were driving home from the grocery store when Yanez and his partner, Joseph Kauser, initiated the stop after initially suspecting that the car’s occupants were involved in a robbery. When a records check revealed no outstanding warrants, Yanez decided to pull the vehicle over anyway citing a broken tail light.
Yanez approached Castile’s vehicle on the driver’s side while Kauser approached the passenger’s side. Informing Castile of the reason for the stop, Yanez asked the motorist to provide his driver’s license and registration. According to Reynolds, who live-streamed the minutes after Castile was shot, Castile informed the officer that he was a licensed gun owner with a permit to carry a concealed weapon and that he had his firearm in the vehicle. As Castile started to retrieve the requested identification, Yanez shouted, “Don’t reach for the gun!” and fired seven rounds at Castile, striking him five times. Though sitting in close proximity, Reynolds and her daughter were not injured. The last words uttered by Castile were, “I wasn’t reaching for it [the gun].” The entire incident lasted 74 seconds.
After the shooting, Yanez continued to point his gun at Castile and can be heard shouting, “I told him not to reach for it. I told him to get his hand open.” No aid was rendered to Castile, who was pronounced dead at the hospital about half an hour after the encounter. On the recording made from Reynolds’ FaceBook Live stream, Yanez can also be heard yelling at Reynolds, “Keep your hands where they are, please.”
In the months and years after the Castile shooting, several events marked the close of the case for many of those who were involved. Officer Yanez was officially charged with second-degree manslaughter in the case. A jury acquitted the officer of all charges in June 2017. In the wake of protests associated with the killing, the St. Anthony Police Department initiated a number of reforms, including the collection and reporting of data on the race of people pulled over in traffic stops.
Despite these efforts, however, the number of traffic stops involving Black motorists increased each year after the department began collecting data in 2017 pointing to the persistence of the problem. Citing their disproportionate impact on people of color, especially African Americans, in September 2021 John Choi, County Attorney of Ramsey County, announced that his office would no longer prosecute felony cases stemming from traffic stops for low level offenses such as expired tags and broken tail lights.
The family reached a settlement with the City of St. Anthony for $2.995 million in June 2017. Reynolds, who was in the car when the shooting happened, received $800,000.