Protests erupted in Minnesota overnight after a man was fatally shot by police during a traffic stop in front of his girlfriend and a child. The aftermath of Philando Castile's shooting in Falcon Heights was apparently captured in graphic detail on Facebook video. Angry crowds gathered outside the governor's mansion as news spread about the death. Castile, 32, was a kitchen supervisor for the St. Paul school district. His was the second officer-involved shooting to spark protests in just two days, following the death of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The St. Anthony Police Department confirmed a man was fatally shot during a traffic stop Wednesday night, saying that a handgun was recovered from the scene and that the officer involved has been placed on paid administrative leave. A woman and her young child were in the car at the time but were unharmed, the department told NBC affiliate KARE11. Police did not identify the victim but his family named him as Philando Castile. In a Facebook video that appears to show the aftermath of the shooting, a man is seen in a blood-soaked white t-shirt slumped in the driver's seat of a car. The form of what appears to be an officer is at the window, pointing a gun inside. "Oh my god, please don't tell me that he's gone. Please, officer, don't tell me that you just did this to him," the panicked woman, who identified herself as Castile's girlfriend, can be heard saying. "He's licensed to carry. He was trying to get out his ID and his wallet out of his pocket and he let the officer know that he was — he had a firearm and he was reaching for his wallet," the woman tells the camera. Speaking to the bleeding man, the woman says: "Stay with me! We got pulled over for a busted tail-light in the back, and the police just … he's covered. They killed my boyfriend." The officer is heard saying "I told him not to reach for it!" to which the woman replies: "You told him to get his ID, sir, his driver's license." "Oh my God, please don't tell me he's dead," the woman says as the wounded man slumps motionless in the seat. "My daughter just witnessed this," the woman says. The child is later seen in the video and tries to comfort her crying mother. "It's OK mommy," the girl says. " It's OK. I'm right here with you." The contents of the video have not been independently confirmed by NBC News. Interim St. Anthony police chief Sgt. Jon Mangseth said he did not have details on what prompted the traffic stop, telling a press conference that he was aware of the livestream but hadn't seen the video. The officer involved has been with the police department for around five years, he added. His police department serves Falcon Heights. a city of around 5,300 people between Minneapolis and St. Paul. Castile had a concealed weapons permit to carry a firearm, his uncle Clarence Castile told NBC News. "My nephew, he wasn't trying to pull a weapon on those police," Clarence Castile said. "He was reaching for ID." He said his nephew was one more victim in a string of "young black men being murdered" by police. "My nephew was executed," Clarence Castile said. "They are going to try and make my nephew out to be a bad guy and get away with murdering another young black man." "My nephew was nowhere near being a bum, he was a good young man," he added. "He was a good kid who loved life." Protesters gathered overnight near the scene of the shooting chanting "No Justice, No Peace" and "Prosecute the Police." A noisy crowd also formed outside the governor's mansion in St. Paul, where police confirmed to KARE11 that Gov. Mark Dayton was in residence. Car horns honked constantly and protesters covered the railings in police tape. Among the crowd was Minneapolis NAACP president Nekima Levy-Pounds, who called on Gov. Dayton to "wake up and make a statement." "Philando Castile was an upstanding citizen according to all the reports we've heard," she told reporters. "We just have a number of questions about how something like this could happen once again." Castile's shooting sparked a massive outcry on social media, with many expressing dismay that two such incidents could happen in such a short time. http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...-rouge-police-sparks-outrage-protests-n604431
Again, we don't know what happened here but if the guy was reaching for his wallet and had a gun in the same area he was reaching and the cop saw it, the cop is not at fault. It's extremely unfortunate for the guy and his family, but the cops are trained to react to someone reaching for a gun. It only takes a matter of a second for a cop to be killed in this situation, they are trained to not let that (guy reaching for gun) happen. We were trained in the course I took for concealed carry about this exact situation. You don't reach for a god damn thing. You put your hands on the wheel, tell the officer you have a legal weapon on your person and ask them how to proceed. Make them aware of the situation and let them control it. There is a lot of responsibility that comes with legally carrying a firearm. Part of that is situational awareness.
I don't know friend. If the guy told him he was carrying, the cop should have listened. I carry daily, never been stopped, but if I were to be, I'd make damn sure the cop knew.
"Whoops... Just another unfortunate police shooting." I wonder who the next young black man in the dead pool will be.. Perhaps before Labor Day..
Just that if you're carrying, you make sure the cop knows. I believe the gf when she said, he told the cop he had a gun. It's a split second decision for the cop, the guy who was shot should have made certain the cop understood, clearly he didn't.
I have been pulled over twice while carrying. Its not a difficult situation to handle if you are doing nothing illegal and have nothing to hide. Just inform the officer that you have a legal firearm in the car and keep your hands on the steering wheel and do whatever the cop tells you to do. Both times the cop has asked me to step out of the car, he has gone taken my firearm and my information from the car and it has been no issue. People need to be educated on how to interact with the police. They are people too who have families and want nothing more than to go home and enjoy their lives ( walk a mile in their shoes kind mentality). People who think they can just ignore a police officer's command is just asking for trouble. Now in this situation the guy should have told him explicitly that the firearm was were he was going to be reaching and ask if that is what he wanted him to do. It really is a shame the cop had to shoot him but that is the way they are trained to respond to someone reaching for a gun. You would do the same if the roles were reversed.
It puts the cop in a tough situation when he tells the guy to stop reaching in his pocket and the guy continues to do so. It could go both ways.
i learned a long time ago reaching for my license on the floor by the passenger seat that you never do anything that will startle a guy with a gun. its like a dog, you tread lightly and make sure that motherfucker is as comfortable as he possibly can be. i am surprised that the cop would ask him to get his id if he had told him he had a gun. im usually on the other side of these but this one seems pretty simple.
Problem is the media and black community encourages black men to disobey the police and respond combatively to them when they not only ignore but defend and celebrate the behavior. It's not a matter of understanding how to respond appropriately, it's changing the attitude that you don't have to listen to the Police because all the responsibility in the interaction falls on the police. You're always the victim regardless of your behavior. But Jesse Williams needs black men to martyr themselves for the cause so he can be applauded as a social justice warrior. Seems like a fair trade -- you die, he gets celebrated.
There are hundreds of young black men in chicago joining the death pool every year but BLM doesn't seem to care
Or Cman. Because BLM isn't about black lives it's about black victimization. Black man dies from the hands of another black man, you have to look internally at your own community and take responsibility for the culture in your own neighborhoods. That's not victimization. Get killed by a cop, that's the winning victim lottery ticket!
Dude, are you black? Seriously? Are you? If you and I both are black then maybe it's where you're located. Maybe they teach different lessons to us in different parts of the country, eh? Because myself and everybody else that I have known gets it drilled in early on not to do any damn thing when the police pull you over. This particular lesson has become so ingrained that I keep my wallet outside of my damn pocket so that in the case of being pulled over it's sitting right there on top of the damn dash. When the cop walks up and my hands are on the wheel and that wallet is looking him/her right in the face. There is no reason to pull a gun on me, hopefully. I have developed this piece of survival instinct because I was taught to be combative, right? Does this at all sound like anything close to combative? Or does it sound like somebody preemptively deflating any possible situation because they KNOW that the other side probably won't be of much help in that regard? All, and I do mean ALL of male, AND female, friends and relatives of color have also been taught the same bit of self preservation. So, assuming that you are black, latino, other, like myself, you or somebody you know much have also been taught this bit of how to not get your self shot. However, I take it from your statement that they must be teaching you something different from what is normally taught. However if you are not black, latino, or other. I'm going to just take the logical jump that you are getting your information 2nd hand or from uninformed, non-objective sources. Now considering how we, the non-white other, have been treated in this country and by the authorities, and society in general, what makes you think, logically, that the parent of some person of color would tell their children to actively resist the people who hold all the cards, deal all the shuffles and carry the black jack to ensure the game is played their way???
You know it's true. You just prefer to lie to yourself that it's the mirrors fault when the face you see in it is ugly.
I have a major issue with this logic that you and countless others on the forum use when it comes to a citizen being killed by police. "The cop is not at fault." When is the cop at fault then? I see time and time again people not at all valuing of these people being killed by always absolving the police of blame. We always hear things like "he was a thug, look at his previous record," "he should have obeyed the law and then listened to the officers," "he shouldn't have reached into his pocket that way." As I said in the other thread, this is either extreme brutality, or incompetent policing, or both. Just because a guy appears dangerous (or black) DOES NOT JUSTIFY THE POLICE USING DEADLY FORCE. Police have to understand that A) Not everyone will know how to comply with police politely and orderly, especially under the stress that usually comes with being stopped and B) Following A, they need to be trained on not using a gun at the FIRST sign of slight discomfort. I'm simply astonished at how little we value the victims' lives when they're killed by police. There needs to be accountability, and the police in this country have zero. We need a culture change in policing top to bottom.
Where is the footage of him being shot? If she reached for the phone after that exchange, she would have been shot too. Her reaction is wayyyyyyy delayed. Somebody is going to make some money off this encounter.
I did not say the cop is not at fault. I described a scenario where the cop would not be at fault. I don't know what happened and so I don't know if the cop was at fault. Neither do you. Can we stop assuming that every black guy killed by police is because racism? It's perfectly reasonable to question why someone is killed by the cops. What's not unreasonable is starting with the assumption that the cop was wrong. Let's find out the facts.
No, its not fuck the "po-lice" it's "the police aren't your friends". The fact is that if you are off-white they are not your friends. They are there to up hold the law, in most cases anyway. As such you have to rely on them when crime is committed. Unfortunately, what this means for me personally is that while I logically understand that they should be people that should engender my trust. They are also to be avoided if possible; not antagonized, engaged in conversation or anything else; just avoided.
