Just a day after a deadly police shooting in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, another fatal shooting by police occurred in Minnesota after an officer killed a black man during a traffic stop for a tail light issue.
The incident took place Wednesday night (July 6) when Philando Castile was pulled over in what seemed like a routine stop. According to a video posted on Facebook by Castile’s girlfriend, the officer asked Castile for his driver’s license, however, when Castile notified the officer he was carrying a permitted firearm the shooting happened quickly thereafter. In the video, which only shows the aftermath and not the shooting itself, the officer (who has yet to be identified, by name or race), is seen yelling at the woman, “I told him not to reach for it,” while she replies, “You told him to get his ID.”
Much like the Alton Sterling shooting on Tuesday, demonstrators began protesting almost immediately. A march was led toward the governor’s mansion and chants of “murderer” were hurled at police, The Washington Post reports.
Again, in an unfortunate similarity with Sterling’s death, family members provided heartwarming (and heartbreaking) information about Castile, informing reporters that he attended the University of Minnesota, was a cafeteria supervisor at a local school, and his daughter was in the car during the shooting. “He’s gone,” his 23-year-old sister, Allysza Castile, told The Post. The police chief in the area said it’s the first police shooting he could recall in 30 years.
People on social media were in arms over yet another death of a black man at the hands of police, and presumably a white officer.
Castile becomes the 589th person to be killed in the U.S. this year by police.