Philando Castile was a 32-year-old African American male, who was fatally shot at a traffic stop by officer Jeronimo Yanez of the St. Anthony police department. Castile was a cafeteria supervisor at J.J. Hill Montessori Magnet School in Saint Paul, Minn. Castile graduated from Central High School in 2001 and had worked for Saint Paul Public Schools (SPPS) since he was 19 years old, beginning in 2002 in the Nutrition Services Department.
The incident involving Philando Castile occurred on July 6, 2016, in St. Anthony Minnesota. Mr. Castile was traveling with his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, and her four-year-old daughter who was in the back seat. Philando was pulled over by Officer Jeronimo Yanez for a faulty brake light. The officer approaches the vehicle and informs Castile as to why the traffic stop was occurring. Yanez then asks for Castile’s license and registration. Before reaching for his wallet, Mr. Castile informs the officer that he was carrying a firearm. Castile was a legal carrier of this firearm. Yanez then places his hand on his service pistol and begins stating, “Don’t pull it out” to which Philando responds that he wasn’t pulling it out. Philando continues reaching to move around inside the vehicle, which makes the officer raise his voice and become increasingly anxious. Sixty-two seconds after their initial encounter, Officer Yanez fires seven shots into Mr. Castile. With his last words, Castile exclaims “I wasn’t reaching.” It was after the shooting that Mrs. Reynolds began to live-stream on Facebook. She explains that he was licensed to carry and was only reaching for his ID and not his firearm. You are able to see the officer, who is now breathing heavily, and claims in a frantic tone “I told him not to reach for it”.
Officer Yanez used deadly force because he thought Castile had a gun in his hands. Yanez also claims “I thought I was gonna die. And, I was scared because I didn’t know if he was gonna, I didn’t know what he was gonna do.” Officer Yanez used deadly force because he was unsure as to Mr. Castile’s motives and feared for not only his life but that of his partner, Mrs. Reynolds, and of her four-year-old daughter. In an interview with state officials, Yanez states he never saw anything in Castile’s hands after shooting him. Yanez was charged with second-degree manslaughter and two counts of reckless discharge of a firearm. He would later be acquitted of all charges. St. Anthony officials then stated that Yanez would not return to their police force.
After the verdict was stated, the public took to the streets to show their disagreement with the outcome of the trial. A series of peaceful protests then occurred. Some two-thousand protestors marched through the streets of Saint-Paul, demonstrating their frustration in the outcome of the case. People of all races appeared to show their dismay with the verdict. They came together as one to mourn the loss of Philando Castile and the failure to bring justice to the situation. Instead of allowing the protester to voice their opinion, the State Patrol used force against the protestors and arrested eighteen of them along with two journalists who were just trying to do their job.