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32-year-old Philando
Castile, was shot dead in front of his girlfriend and their
4-year-old daughter, during a traffic stop over a broken car
taillight in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Castile, a licensed gun
owner informed the officer, Jeronimo Yanez, he had a weapon
and permit in the vehicle. This is what gun owners are told
to do when stopped by law enforcement. The police officer
asked Castile for his driver's license. When Castile
attempted to reach into his pocket for his driver's license,
contained in his wallet, the police officer became agitated.
Then, the officer changed his mind told Castile to put his
hands in the air and when he peacefully did, the policeman
shot Castile 4 times, killing him. This constitutes murder.
Diamond Reynolds,
Castile's girlfriend in the passenger seat, quickly began
filming and uploading the aftermath of the shooting to her
Facebook page, realizing the police officer is corrupt.
Reynold's and Castile's 4-year old daughter told her mother,
"It's ok. I'm right here with you." Reynolds was then cuffed
and she and her 4-year-old daughter taken to the police
station. Reynolds and her child were separated at the jail
and unlawfully detained for approximately 12-hours and with
no food or water, which constitutes civil rights violations.
It was absolutely sinister. They had no right to hold
Reynolds and her child. The police were also in the wrong
separating mother from child.
Philando Castile dying in his car
A police officer
illegally confiscated Reynolds phone and engaged in evidence
tampering in having the video removed from Facebook.
However, many people had already seen the video that was
downloaded and began circulating online. Within a short
space of time, the video had 1,000,000 plus views. Once
again, police behavior in this case was sinister and
constitutes evidence tampering. A few hours later, the video
was put back online. Castile's mother also stated on CNN
that police have been refusing to let her identify her son's
body.
Any police officers
involved in unlawful behavior in this case, from murder to
removing the video from Facebook to unlawfully detaining
Reynolds and her daughter, should be brought up on full
criminal charges. The whole story is rotten from start to
finish. The officer that murdered Castile is unhinged and
trigger happy. He should not be a police officer. He should
be in prison paying his debt to society for the life he so
carelessly took.
