“Authorities say that a man is dead after being shot by police Wednesday evening after being pulled over in a traffic stop. The incident took place in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, near Minneapolis.” In the video at CNN.com (click the image above to view) Philando Castile’s girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, describes what happened — in a remarkably calm manner — from inside the car as the wounded man bleeds next to her.
“Stay with me,” are the first words heard in her video. “We got pulled over for a busted tail light in the back.”
The camera shows the woman speaking, then turns to a man in a white shirt, covered in blood. Out the window appears to be a police officer with his gun drawn.
The footage was streamed on a Facebook account under the name Lavish Reynolds. WCCO spoke to Castile’s family who identified the woman as Diamond Reynolds.
In the video’s first minute, Reynolds says that Castile is licensed to carry a firearm. She claims that before the shooting, her boyfriend was trying to get his ID from his wallet in his back pocket.
This is the second arguably questionable shooting of an armed black man in the last 72 hours, both at least partially captured on video.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Assistance, a state-wide criminal investigative agency, was called and is investigating the incident, (interim St. Anthony police chief Jon) Mangseth said. “We will release the information as we learn it, and we will address concerns as we are faced with them,” he said.
This could be a long, hot summer.