{"id":32524,"date":"2017-06-17T09:05:30","date_gmt":"2017-06-17T09:05:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=32524"},"modified":"2017-06-17T09:05:30","modified_gmt":"2017-06-17T09:05:30","slug":"minn-police-officer-found-not-guilty-in-philando-castile-facebook-live-shooting-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/minn-police-officer-found-not-guilty-in-philando-castile-facebook-live-shooting-death.html","title":{"rendered":"Minn. police officer found not guilty in Philando Castile Facebook Live shooting death"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minn. police officer found not guilty in Philando Castile Facebook Live shooting death<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Philando Castile’s final moments were streamed live on Facebook \u2014 but even that couldn\u2019t convince a jury Friday to find the Minnesota cop who shot him guilty of manslaughter.<\/span><\/p>\n

The incident sparked national outrage, but it took a jury \u2014 made up of 10 whites and two blacks \u2014 30 hours to find Officer Jeronimo Yanez not guilty of all charges against him in the July 2016 shooting.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDamn, what is it going to take?\u201d Castile\u2019s mother Valerie Castile, who yelled \u201cf— this s—\u201d as she left the courtroom, according to witnesses.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe system continues to fail black people and it will continue to fail you all,\u201d she added, saying that her son cooperated with police but had been murdered by the city he loved.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yanez, who is Hispanic, pulled over Castile, a 32-year-old African-American cafeteria worker, for a broken taillight in St. Paul.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the car with Castile was his girlfriend Diamond Reynolds and her 4-year-old daughter, who was in the backseat.<\/span><\/p>\n

Castile tried telling Yanez that he was a licensed gun owner and had a firearm with him, according to Reynolds.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yanez opened fire as Castile reached for either his wallet or seat belt, Reynolds said.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the moments after the shooting, the 27-year-old used her phone to record her boyfriend bleeding to death in the driver\u2019s seat.<\/span><\/p>\n

The anger that spread across the country over his death boiled over again Friday when the Castile family realized that Yanez would join a growing list of cops acquitted in controversial police shootings.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis was supposed to be the last time that America sees something like this; something would be done about it,\u201d Castile\u2019s uncle Tracy Castile told the Daily News. \u201cOver the last couple years: Eric Garner, Michael Brown. All these killings, and all these killers are going free?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Reynolds said after the verdict, \u201cIt is a sad state of affairs when this type of criminal conduct is condoned simply because Yanez is a policeman.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In his defense, the Twin Cities cop said he was scared for his life because Castile disobeyed his orders and was going for his gun.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI told him not to reach for it,\u201d Yanez is seen screaming on Reynolds’ video, moments after opening fire.<\/span><\/p>\n

The defense hinged in part on where the weapon was when the officer pulled the trigger. Police dash cam video captured Yanez saying immediately after the shooting that he didn\u2019t know where the gun was and that he told Castile not to grab it.<\/span><\/p>\n

The footage also showed Castile saying, \u201cI\u2019m not pulling it out\u201d before Yanez opened fire \u2014 and moaning \u201cI wasn\u2019t reaching for it\u201d after being shot.<\/span><\/p>\n

The defense also brought up the fact that THC, a chemical found in marijuana, was found in Castile\u2019s system, and could have impacted his reactions.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, a toxicologist testified that it would be impossible to determine when he had last smoked pot.<\/span><\/p>\n

A forensic expert at trial said the bullets came close to hitting Reynolds and her daughter, but the jury also acquitted Yanez of endangering their lives with his gunfire.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.), the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, condemned the result.<\/span><\/p>\n

A forensic expert at trial said the bullets came close to hitting Reynolds and her daughter, but the jury also acquitted Yanez of endangering their lives with his gunfire.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.), the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, condemned the result.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis verdict tells African Americans across the country that they can be killed by police officers with impunity, even when they are following the law, and that it is reasonable for any person interacting with an African American in any way to fear for his or her life,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The incident was one of several high-profile police shootings last summer, coming only a day after the shooting of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge.<\/span><\/p>\n

Activists both in the Twin Cities and across the nation protested as part of the Black Lives Matter movement against brutality toward black men and boys.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thousands of demonstrators gathered Friday evening at the nearby state Capitol to protest the verdict. They carried signs that read \u201cUnite for Philando\u201d and \u201cCorrupt systems only corrupt.\u201d Protesters also blocked traffic by standing side-by-side across a highway.<\/span><\/p>\n

Juror Dennis Ploussard told KARE TV that the jury was split 10-2 early in deliberations, and that the two black jurors were not the holdouts.<\/span><\/p>\n

He said that the deliberations were \u201cvery, very hard\u201d and that the jury spent a lot of time on the idea of \u201cculpable negligence,\u201d where a suspect creates the unreasonable risk of death.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yanez was offered a \u201cvoluntary separation agreement\u201d from the St. Anthony Police Department minutes after the verdict. If convicted, he would have faced up to 10 years in prison.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0http:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/news\/national\/minn-police-officer-found-not-guilty-philando-castile-death-article-1.3253452<\/span><\/p>\n

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