Police Fatally Shoot Man During Traffic Stop, Video Goes Viral

A 32-year-old man has died after an officer-involved shooting Wednesday night in Falcon Heights. Philando Castile’s mother, Valerie Castile, says he died at Hennepin County Medical Center after 11 p.m.

St. Anthony Police said in a press release that officers pulled over a vehicle at Larpenteur Avenue and Fry Street at about 9 p.m. They said “shots were fired” during the traffic stop, and a handgun was recovered at the scene. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating.

Castile’s family says his girlfriend, Lavisha Reynolds, and her 4-year-old daughter were in the car at the time. Reynolds was taken into custody Wednesday night.

The video filmed by Reynolds, began circulating on Facebook shortly after the shooting, but was pulled from the site .
Reynolds, who was in the front passenger seat, says in the video that they were pulled over for a broken tail light. She says police asked Castile, who was driving, for his license and registration.

She says as Castile was reaching for his wallet, he informed officers that he had a firearm in his possession, and a conceal-and-carry permit.

Reynolds says in the video that an officer then shot her boyfriend four times.

The officer in the video at one point screams,

I told him not to reach for it! I told him to get his hand out …

Reynolds tells the officer,

You told him to get his I.D., sir, his driver’s license.

She pans the cellphone camera over Castile, who is covered in blood.

Oh my God, please don’t tell me he’s dead. Please don’t tell me my boyfriend just went like that.

The officer, whose gun is drawn the entire time, tells Reynolds to,

Keep your hands where they are.

“Yes I will, sir, I’ll keep my hands where they are,” she said.

Reynolds is then told to get out of the car. Her cellphone shows several officers with guns drawn, and one officer holding her daughter, who was in the back seat of the car when Castile was shot.

Valerie Castile told WCCO that her son was a cafeteria supervisor at J.J. Hill Montessori School in St. Paul. He would have turned 33 on Friday.

Sgt. Jon Mangseth, St. Anthony Police’s interim chief, told reporters late Wednesday night that he was aware of the Facebook video, but not of its content.Mangseth said.

[We haven’t had an] officer-involved shooting in, you know, 30 years or more. I’d have to go back in the history books, to tell you the truth.  

He later stated in a brief press conference early Thursday morning that the officer who shot Castile has been placed on standard paid administrative leave.

The St. Anthony Police Department provides police services for the neighboring cities of Falcon Heights and Lauderdale.

Castile’s family and friends gathered at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis late Wednesday night, and were later joined by Minneapolis NAACP President Nekima Levy-Pounds and other community activists.

See the disturbing video below.

[CBS Local]

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