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posted by martyb on Thursday July 07 2016, @09:17PM   Printer-friendly

A woman named Lavish Reynolds has posted a dramatic Facebook Live video showing a bleeding man, Philando Castile, next to her in a car as a police officer who just shot him points a gun at him through a car window. Philando Castile, 32, died at the hospital a short time later, WCCO confirmed through his family. "Police shot him for no apparent reason, no reason at all," she says at one point.

The police shooting occurred in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. Falcon Heights, which is located 10 minutes from Minneapolis/St. Paul, is the home of the Minnesota State Fair and dubs itself a "village within the city." A child (she was 4-years-old, said the St. Paul Pioneer Press) was in the car when the police officer, who has not been identified, shot Philando Castile. The child could be heard crying in the background as the emotional-sounding officer continues to point his gun through the car window as Castile bleeds through his white T-shirt and an upset Reynolds talks live on Facebook, imploring God to save him. Facebook Live allows people to stream live video directly from their cell phone onto their Facebook page.

In the video, Lavish Reynolds says to Philando Castile, "Stay with me... We got pulled over for a busted taillight in the back." She also said in the video that police asked Castile, the driver, for his license and registration and, as he reached for it, he told officers that he had a firearm and a concealed carry permit. The officer then shot him, she said (Castile had been stopped for traffic issues before; he was booked for driving after revocation in the past. However, a check with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension's criminal record database showed only an entry for failing to provide proof of insurance; the Minneapolis Star-Tribune said his record consisted of "misdemeanors and petty misdemeanors" only.)

Philando Castile, 32, worked in a school cafeteria in St. Paul, the Star-Tribune said. A parent of a child in the school posted a tribute to him on Facebook, saying "This was a GOOD MAN" who pushed extra food on children and gave a borderline autistic child constant hugs.

There are a number of links with this story - I chose the first one with a working link to the video. (Working for me, anyway. [Javascript required, but see below. -Ed.])

[This seems to be a direct link to the 10m30s, 36MB video: http://videos.videopress.com/zis1YJRV/minnesota-video_dvd.mp4
The video is also available on YouTube. -Ed.]

Update #1: This revolution will not be televised – Facebook mysteriously vanishes Philando Castile death-by-cop video

Update #2: According to a story on Ars Technica , the Governor of Minnesota is asking for an independent federal investigation:

Gov. Mark Dayton of Minnesota on Thursday asked the Department of Justice to investigate the killing of a black motorist shot by a white police officer. Philando Castile's dying moments were live-streamed on Facebook, and the incident prompted a comment from President Barack Obama.

Dayton said he wanted an "immediate independent federal investigation into this matter." The governor suggested that racism was to blame for the killing of Castile, a 32-year-old school cafeteria manager, who was shot at least four times by a police officer after being pulled over for a broken taillight in Falcon Heights.


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