Philando Castile, 32, was fatally shot by a Minnesota police officer after being pulled over for a broken tail light, according to local news reports and a video his girlfriend, who was in the car with him, uploaded to Facebook Live.
In the video (which is graphic and disturbing), a police officer can be seen pointing a gun through a car window at Castile, who is bleeding from the abdomen. Lavish Reynolds, his girlfriend, says that the couple were pulled over for a broken tail light, and the cop fired shots after asking Castile to get his license and identification. Her young daughter was in the back seat of the car during the shooting, and can be seen on the video at one point trying to comfort her mother.
“You shot four bullets into him,” Reynolds says to the officer. Castile told the officer he had a license to carry a gun, and was shot when he reached for his wallet, she said. Police in St. Anthony, Minnesota, said Wednesday night (July 6) that a man had been killed in an officer-involved shooting after a traffic stop.
Facebook took down the video soon after it was posted, but then reposted it with warning that it contained graphic content. Hundreds of people quickly gathered at the spot where Castile was shot, and in front of the Minnesota governor’s residence in St. Paul to protest.
“We had a busted tail light, he had a license to carry, and we had some weed in the car, that’s about it,” Reynolds says at the end of the video. “The police just shot him for no apparent reason. No reason at all.” She was taken into custody.