Minnesota attorney Thomas Kelly was mum on the exact reason why Yanez shot Castile, simply telling AP the Latino officer reacted to “the presence of that gun and the display of that gun”. Castile “was not following the directions of the police officer”, Kelly said, but he declined to provide further detail.
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The fatal shooting of Philando Castile, 32, on Wednesday night in a St. Paul suburb has sparked days of protests in Minnesota and cities around the United States, intensified by a video of the bloody aftermath Castile’s girlfriend Diamond Reynolds streamed live on the internet from the auto. Castile’s girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, also couldn’t be reached for comment; no one answered the door at her home Saturday afternoon. “This had nothing to do with race”. “This case has nothing to do with race and everything to do with the presence of a gun”.
Tens of thousands of people have opened their hearts for the family of Alton Sterling, the Baton Rouge father killed in a police-involved shooting filmed on video. Castile was shot and killed after a traffic stop by police in Falcon Heights, . “There was more than the reason that the brake light was cracked”, Kelly said.
Christian Dobratz taught the officers when they were students at Minnesota State University-Mankato from 2008 to 2010.
Dobratz said he respects the right of people to peacefully protest.
“You don’t see it being addressed properly, people can get disgruntled about that and if you’re a little unbalanced, this gentleman was a military guy, I think sometimes if you see too much and can’t handle it you reach out in a violent way”, Nelson Linder, president of Austin NAACP said.
“He was very upset about this whole incident, and he remains that way”, Kelly said.
Yanez, who is of Mexican descent, is cooperating fully with the state’s investigation into the shooting, Kelly said. St. Anthony Police and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension issued a crime alert with photographs of two black male suspects. She also said Castile had told officers that he had a gun and was licensed to carry.
Gregory Ford, a bystander, took a video of Castile’s vehicle the night he was shot.
Authorities said that Johnson, who was black, told officers he was upset about recent shootings and wanted to kill whites, “especially white officers”.
“I advised him that he should probably remove himself”, Kelly told Time.
Reynolds responded, “He was just getting his license and registration, sir”.
Court records show the traffic stop was at least the 52nd time Castile, a 32-year-old school cafeteria supervisor, had been pulled over in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area generate from traffic violations. KARE did not publicize the number for privacy reasons, but the station said it had verified that the auto was Castile’s.
They were considered model students by their faculty, who thought the two young classmates showed the leadership and character for a career as police officers.
As members of law enforcement, we understand there will always be questions when officers discharge their weapons and lives are lost.
Officer: “Shots fired Larpenteur and Fry”.
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The news station said it try to confirm the authenticity of the recording with St. Anthony police, but their calls went ignored.
