(CNN) As Philando Castile's head slumps backward while he lies dying next to her, Diamond Reynolds looks directly into the camera and explains that a Minnesota police officer just shot her fiancé four times.
The nation is, by now, accustomed to grainy cell phone videos of officer-involved shootings, but this footage from Falcon Heights, outside Minneapolis, is something different, more visceral: a woman live-streaming a shooting's aftermath with the police officer a few feet away, his gun still trained on her bloody fiancé.
"He let the officer know that he had a firearm and he was reaching for his wallet and the officer just shot him in his arm," Reynolds said as she broadcast the Wednesday evening shooting on Facebook.
Castile, an African-American, was a school nutrition services supervisor who was popular among his colleagues and students, according to his employer.
He had been pulled over for a busted tail light, Reynolds explained on the Facebook video. He told the officer he was armed and had a concealed carry permit, she said. Her daughter, 4, is in the back seat.
As she speaks, Castile's wrists are crossed. Blood covers the bottom of his white T-shirt sleeve and a large area around his sternum and left rib cage. Perhaps in shock or agony, he peers emptily upward.
'You shot four bullets into him, sir'
Though you can't see the St. Anthony police officer's face, you can hear the agitation in his voice as he tells Reynolds to keep her hands where he can see them.
Composed, as she remains through much of the video, Reynolds replies, "I will, sir, no worries. I will."
The officer still sounds distressed as he explains, "I told him not to reach for it. I told him to get his hand off it."
Moments later, Reynolds pleads with God and then the officer as she realizes Castile won't likely make it.
"Please don't tell me this, Lord. Please, Jesus, don't tell me that he's gone. Please don't tell me that he's gone," she said. "Please, officer, don't tell me that you just did this to him. You shot four bullets into him, sir. He was just getting his license and registration, sir."
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Castile's mother told CNN Thursday that he and his sister had stopped by her house earlier Wednesday, and during the visit, they had discussed the dangers of carrying weapons, even though both of them have concealed carry permits.
"I really don't even want to carry my gun because I'm afraid that they'll shoot me first and then ask questions later," Valerie Castile eerily recalled her daughter saying.
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'He had a permit to carry'
"Outraged" by her son's death, Valerie Castile said he was a law-abiding citizen who did nothing wrong. She called her son "legitimate all the way across the board."
"He had a permit to carry, but with all of that, trying to do the right things and live accordingly by the law, he was killed by the law," she said. "A lot of our African-American men, women and children are being executed by the police and there are no consequences. So, in essence, I feel like it's becoming more and more repetitive. Every day you hear of another black person being shot down, gunned down by the people that are supposed to protect us."
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More:
http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/07/us/fal...ing-minnesota/
Originally Posted by jllundqu
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