Another black man has been fatally shot by police, this time during a traffic stop Wednesday night in Falcon Heights, Minn., WCCO reports.
The mother of Philando Castile, the victim, confirmed that he died at Hennepin County Medical Center after 11 p.m. Wednesday.
Castile's girlfriend, Diamond “Lavish” Reynolds, who at the time was in the vehicle with Castile and her 4-year-old daughter, Diamond, live-streamed the aftermath of the shooting on Facebook Live, where it was circulated widely before being pulled from the site.
The video starts after Castile has been shot, blood soaking through his clothes. Reynolds, who was in the front passenger seat, says in the video that they were being pulled over for a broken taillight. She says that when the police asked Castile, who was driving at the time, for his license and registration, Castile reached for his wallet while informing the officer that he had a firearm in his possession and a conceal-and-carry permit. That was when, Reynolds says, an officer shot her boyfriend four times.
Editor’s note: Video is graphic and may be disturbing to some.
An officer in the video can be heard screaming expletives before yelling, "I told him not to reach for it! I told him to get his hand out … "
"You told him to get his ID, sir, his driver's license," Reynolds counters.
The officer, whose gun is still drawn, then demands that Reynolds "keep [her] hands where they are."
Eventually, an officer can be heard ordering Reynolds to get out of the car. When Reynolds exits the car, her cellphone video captures several other officers with guns drawn. She is handcuffed and put in the backseat of a police car with her daughter.
According to WCCO, Sgt. Jon Mangseth, interim chief of the St. Anthony, Minn., Police Department, which serves Falcon Heights, told reporters that he knew of the video but not of its content.
“[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,” Mangseth said.
Mangseth announced early Thursday morning that the officer who shot Castile had been put on paid administrative leave.
After the shooting, about 200 people gathered outside the site around 1:30 a.m., WCCO notes. Police started towing cars soon after and most people left by 2:30 a.m. However, by around 2 a.m., protesters also had begun to gather at the governor's mansion in St. Paul, Minn.
On Thursday morning, Castile's mother and uncle spoke with CNN. His mother, Valerie Castile, said she had not seen the video of the aftermath of the shooting because she wants to remember her son "the way [she] last saw him leaving [her] home earlier this evening."
Valerie Castile said that Wednesday afternoon, Philando and his sister were discussing the conceal-and-carry permit they both have.
"My daughter said, 'You know what? I really don't even want to carry my gun because I'm afraid that they'll shoot me first and then ask me questions later,’" Valerie Castile said.
"My son was a law-abiding citizen and he did nothing wrong. He had a permit to carry, but with all of that, trying to do the right things, and then accordingly abide the law, he was killed by the law," she added. "I'm outraged."
Valerie Castile also added that she was not allowed to see her son's body and that the family could not locate Reynolds and had last seen her at the scene.
Valerie Castile described her son as a laid-back, quiet person. Philando Castile was a cafeteria supervisor at J.J. Hill Montessori School in St. Paul and would have turned 33 on Friday, WCCO notes.
The mother said that she often discussed with her son about complying with police officers' orders.
"The key thing in order to try to survive being stopped by the police is to comply. Whatever they ask you to do, do it. Don't say nothing. Just do whatever they want you to do. So what's the difference in complying and you get killed anyway?" Valerie Castile said.