Video footage of the fatal shooting of a black motorist by a Minnesota police officer released on Tuesday showed how quickly the incident unfolded but shed no light on whether the victim had reached for the gun he told the officer he was carrying.
The video footage is from the dashboard camera of the police cruiser of St. Anthony Police Department officer Jeronimo Yanez, who was found not guilty on Friday of second-degree manslaughter in the July 2016 shooting death of Philando Castile.
Yanez shot Castile, 32, five times during a traffic stop in the St. Paul suburb of Falcon Heights. . Like other similar incidents across the United States, Castile’s death fueled public outrage and debate about the appropriate use of force by law enforcement against minorities.
The aftermath of the shooting was broadcast on social media by Castile’s girlfriend, who was in the car with a young child. But the dashboard camera footage, shown in court during Yanez’s trial, had not previously been made public.
The video begins in silence as Yanez follows a white Oldsmobile driven by Castile on a lightly-traveled road. After pulling Castile’s car over, Yanez exits his cruiser and tells Castile his brake light is broken.
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