Minnesota officials on Tuesday released dashcam footage showing the fatal police shooting of Philando Castile by officer Jeronimo Yanez, who was acquitted by a jury last Friday of second-degree manslaughter.
The video had been played for jurors during Yanez’s trial, but had not been seen by the public until Tuesday when it was released by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the Ramsey County Attorney’s office.
The 10-minute video begins roughly at the timestamp 9:04 p.m. on July 6, 2016, and shows Yanez’s police cruiser trailing Castile’s car for several seconds before activating lights to pull him over.
Once Yanez approaches the driver’s window, he tells Castile that his brake lights are out:
“The reason I pulled you over — your brake lights are out. So you only have one active brake light, and that’s going to be your passenger-side one. The third brake light, which you have up here on the top, and this one back here, is going to be out. Do you have your license and insurance?” Yanez says.
Castile can then be seen handing his insurance card to Yanez, which Yanez reads and then pockets.
At that pont, Castile tells Yanez, “Sir, I have to tell you that I do have a firearm on me,” and Yanez can be seen moving his hand to his holster.
“Okay. Okay. Don’t reach for it then,” Yanez says, while Castile says something inaudible.
“Don’t pull it out,” Yanez says.
“I’m not pulling it out,” Castile says.
“He’s not pulling it out,” Castile’s girlfriend Diamond Reynolds says.
“Don’t pull it out,” Yanez says as he withdraws his gun, reaches his arm through the driver’s window, and fires seven shots.
As Yanez shoots Castile, his partner, officer Joseph Kauser, can be seen leaping away from the car.
“I wasn’t reaching for it,” Castile says.
“He wasn’t reaching for it,” Reynolds says.
The shots ring out at 9:06 p.m., less than 40 seconds after Yanez first approached Castile’s window.In the following seconds, Yanez shouts expletives, breathing heavily, and yelling, “Don’t move.”
Reynolds’ four-year-old daughter exits the car and is picked up by Kauser, as Reynolds can be heard describing the shooting as she films Yanez on Facebook Live, in a video that quickly went viral.
Other officers quickly arrive at the scene, pull Castile out of the driver’s seat, and begin CPR. Yanez walks out of sight of the camera, but can be heard describing the shooting to his supervisor.
Watch the full video below:
As reported by Business Insider