MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Video that shows a Minnesota police officer firing seven rapid shots at Philando Castile during a traffic stop last July is now public, days after the officer was acquitted in the case.The video came from a camera in the squad car of Officer Jeronimo Yanez. He was found not guilty of manslaughter and other charges in the death of Castile, a black motorist who was shot seconds after he told Yanez he had a gun.
The shooting gained widespread attention because Castile’s girlfriend livestreamed its gruesome aftermath on Facebook.
The squad-car video was shown in court but not released publicly until Tuesday. It shows a wide view of the traffic stop and shooting. It does not show what happened inside the car or what Yanez, who is Latino, saw.
Here it is for the morbidly curious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcwTnQP2kDU
The argument is always that the cop was justified because Scary Big Black Guy, and Who Can Blame Him, etc. etc. I don’t think the video will persuade the public otherwise, anymore than it did the jury…
in the video I saw:
0:12 Officer reaches driver’s window
0:44 Castile informs officer that he has a gun
0:44.5 Officer puts hand on his revolver
0:45-0:50 Officer keeps telling Castile not to pull out the gun
0:50 Officer shoots Castile
0:50 Second officer, who has been standing five feet away from the passenger side of car, runs away.
I saw it (somewhere else) and wish I hadn’t. Except that it so clearly shows that the police officer was completely panicked and out of control. I cannot believe that anyone who saw this, would then let him off. An injustice of sickening proportions.
Well, he was skeert! When a police officer is skeert, you must acquit!