Police Stop Ends In Black Man’s Death; Aftermath Is Live-Streamed On Facebook

A woman who began streaming video on Facebook immediately after her boyfriend was shot by police in suburban Minneapolis, Minn., says he had been stopped for a broken tail light — and that he was licensed to carry a gun. The killing of Philando Castile, 32, is the second fatal encounter between police and a black man to gain national attention this week.

The graphic video, which shows Castile suffering from a wound to his chest area, his shirt bloodied as he slumps in the car, has sparked outrage and protests in Falcon Heights, Minn., not far from where Castile reportedly worked as a cafeteria supervisor at a Montessori school.

Castile’s girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds — who uses the name Lavish Reynolds online — began streaming video to Facebook from car in which she’d been riding with Castile and her 4-year-old daughter.

We’ll embed the video here, with the warning that it contains images that viewers might find disturbing.

“Stay with me,” Reynolds says at the start of the video, as her boyfriend clutches his right side.

“We got pulled over for a busted taillight in the back,” Reynolds says, beginning to tell her story in a video that lasts for nearly 10 minutes. “The police just … he’s covered.”

“They killed my boyfriend,” she says as Castile sits in the car, occasionally crying out. “He’s licensed to carry. He was trying to get out his ID and his wallet out his pocket. And he let the officer know that he was — he had a firearm, and he was reaching for his wallet. And the officer just shot him in his arm.”

Reynolds is then interrupted by the shouts of a police officer who tells her to keep her hands where he can see them. As he speaks, he’s pointing the gun inside the car.

“I told him not to reach for it!” the officer yells, as he seems to take deep breaths. “I told him to get his hands up.”

“You told him to get his ID, sir — his driver’s license,” a remarkably composed Reynolds answers.

She then looks at her boyfriend and says, “Oh my God, please don’t tell me he’s dead. Please don’t tell me my boyfriend just went like that.”

The officer, who works for the St. Anthony, Minn., police department, then tells her to keep her hands where they are.

More than a minute into the video, police officers order Reynolds out of the car.

Castile was later pronounced dead at a local hospital, family members tell the Star Tribune.