Lavisha Reynolds can be heard screaming in a Facebook video that went viral Wednesday night after she, her boyfriend, Philando Castile, and her 4-year-old daughter were pulled over while driving in Falcon Heights, Minn.
“Please, officer, don’t tell me that you just did this to him,” Reynolds said. “You shot four bullets into him, sir. He was just getting his license and registration, sir.”
Castile, the driver of the vehicle, was shot and killed by a police officer, officials said, after allegedly reaching for his driver’s license after the officer asked him for it. Reynolds also said Castile possessed a concealed carry license and told the officer about the gun when he asked.
“Ma’am, keep your hands where they are,” the officer shouted at Reynolds. “I told him not to reach for it! I told him to get his hands up.”
“You told him to get his ID, sir, his driver’s license,” you hear Reynolds say in the video. “Oh my God, please don’t tell me he’s dead. Please don’t tell me my boyfriend just went like that.”
Jon Mangseth, the interim police chief in the community of St. Anthony where the shooting occurred, said the incident began when an officer pulled over a vehicle around 9 p.m. Wednesday in Falcon Heights. Mangseth said he did not have details about the reason for the traffic stop, but that at some point, shots were fired. The man was struck but no one else was injured, he said.
Castile later died in the hospital, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The Associated Press reported that the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating the incident.
This is the second shooting of a black man by a police officer in less than 24 hours. Alton Sterling was killed by a police officer in Baton Rouge, La., Tuesday night. When will enough be enough?
Castile is at least the 506th person shot and killed by police so far in the US in 2016, according to a Washington Post database that tracks these shootings.
It is argued that some of these people have criminal records, others are carrying weapons or refusing arrest. While this may be true in some cases, does this justify their murder? Absolutely not.
No one is above the law, not even those who are supposed to enforce it.
“I made sure my kids understood the difference in being law abiding, and that the police were there to help,” Castile’s mother said. “I never once in my life have thought that my son would actually be killed by the persons that are supposed to protect and serve him.”
The Black Lives Matter movement, family, friends and protesters are standing up for and in solidarity with Philando and the others who have fallen victim to these tragedies.
How many more...?
— Prince Amukamara (@PrinceAmukamara) July 7, 2016
Powerful. True. Heartbreaking. Infuriating. 💔 #PhilandoCastile#BlackLivesMatterhttps://t.co/Oc1P0uazHp
— Q. Allan Brocka (@allanbrocka) July 7, 2016
RIP #PhilandoCastile C'mon... Daughter in the back. Why would ANY man do something crazy with his daughter there. The cop KNEW he messed up.
— Luke Broadlick (@LukeBroadlick) July 7, 2016
A licensed gun-carrier did everything he was "supposed" to do, but still gets shot & dies. WHAT NOW? Inexcusable. #PhilandoCastile
— uglyash. (@iloveemyah) July 7, 2016
Un-f*cking-believable, America! #PhilandoCastile should not just be the latest, but the LAST!!!!! #BlackLivesMatterhttps://t.co/fbqtUJ2Q55
— Sally Kohn (@sallykohn) July 7, 2016
As Global Citizens, we recognize that black lives matter, just as all lives matter.