The girlfriend of Philando Castile, who was shot and killed Wednesday night during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights, Minn., made her first public appearance Thursday morning at a rally at the residence of Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton in St. Paul, Fusion reports.
Diamond “Lavish” Reynolds, who broadcast the aftermath of Castile's shooting on Facebook Live, described to protesters, once again, how they had been pulled over for a broken taillight. According to Reynolds, once they were stopped, the officer immediately told them to put their hands in the air and then asked for license and registration.
“As [Castile] is reaching for his back-pocket wallet, he lets the officer know, ‘Officer, I have a firearm on me,’” Reynolds said. “I begin to yell, ‘But he has a license to carry!’ After that [the officer] begins to take off shots—boom, boom, boom, boom.
“How can you not move when you’re asking for license and registration?” Reynolds questioned.
Reynolds said that she decided to post the live stream at the last minute because she wanted it to "go viral so that the people could see."
“I didn’t do it for pity, I didn’t do it for fame. I did it so that the world knows that these police are not here to protect and serve us. They are here to assassinate us. They are here to kill us. Because we are black," she added.
Reynolds also nodded to other black people who have died in controversial circumstances.
“I’m Trayvon Martin, you’re Trayvon Martin,” she said. “We’re Sandra [Bland], you’re Sandra [Bland]. We are the people! And we can’t keep allowing these people who are supposed to serve and protect us to take us away.
"I will not be able to sleep until I get justice," Reynolds said.
Read more at Fusion.