Encomium
Calm is yet to return to Louisiana, United States of America, following the fatal police shooting of unarmed CD seller, Alton Sterling on Tuesday, July 5, as another black man has been gunned down by the police in Minnesota around 9pm on Wednesday, July 6.
32-year-old Philando Castile, an African-American was driving with his girlfriend, Lavish Reynolds and her 4-year-old daughter when a police officer ordered them to pull over at Larpenteur Avenue and Fry Street for a broken taillight.
On the officer’s request for Castile’s ID and a driver’s license, Castile reached for his wallet informing the police officer immediately that he had a conceal-and-carry permit for a firearm he possessed. Diamond Reynolds, the deceased girlfriend reported that the officer panicked and emptied four shots into the man on his arm.
Just after the shooting, Reynolds took the video showing an unconscious Castile with blood all over his white t-shirt.
Reynolds had managed to keep her composure through the tears and films the conversation, as she addresses the cop: “You told him to get his I.D., sir, his driver’s license.”
Her camera shows the cop still standing by the driver’s window with his gun, the officer alleged that: “I told him not to reach for it! I told him to get his hand out…”
“Oh my God, please don’t tell me he’s dead. Please don’t tell me my boyfriend just went like that,” she says, panning the camera slightly to her boyfriend. The officer, his gun still drawn and voice shaking, says: “Keep your hands where they are.”
According to Lavish, the police officer who was only described as a ‘Chinese police officer’ and yet to be identified is from the St. Anthony Police Department in Falcon Heights; since the incident, he has been placed on paid leave while an investigation has been launched by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
Castile, until his death, was a cafeteria supervisor at a school in St Paul, and would have clocked 33 years on Friday, July 8. Valerie Castle, his mother confirmed that he died at Hennepin County Medical Center.
About 200 people have gathered outside Minnesota Governor’s house to protest the police shooting as people all over the world also react online.
Seyifunmi Adebote for encomium.ng
