DOJ asked to investigate another cop shooting of a black man; girlfriend live-streamed the aftermath
Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton. Al Mueller / Shutterstock.com
Updated: Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton is asking the U.S. Justice Department to investigate a fatal police shooting of a black man pulled over for a broken tail light.
The man who was killed, Philando Castile, was a cafeteria supervisor at St. Paul Public Schools, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. His girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, live-streamed a video immediately after the shooting in Falcon Heights.
Reynolds said on the video that a police officer had asked Castile for his license and registration. Castile told the officer “that it was in his wallet, but he had a pistol on him because he’s licensed to carry,” Reynolds said. “The officer said, ‘Don’t move.’ As he was putting his hands back up, the officer shot him in the arm four or five times.”
On the video, the officer says, “I told him not to reach for it. I told him to get his hand out.”
The governor called for the investigation in a statement to demonstrators outside the governor’s residence. The police officers who stopped Castile were from St. Anthony.
Reynolds later told reporters that the officers had stopped the car because of the taillight, but it wasn’t broken.
On Friday, ABA President Paulette Brown issued a statement about recent incidents of violence and the rule of law. She made the statement after the sniper shootings in Dallas that killed five police officers.
The statement reads:
“The American Bar Association is deeply troubled by the events of the past few days. The incidents are at the same time heartbreaking, infuriating and terrifying. Our civil society and the safety of all in it—citizens and law enforcement—rely on the rule of law.
“It is imperative that the law be fairly applied and enforced. All citizens must perceive our justice system as fair. It also is essential that laws and authority are respected and followed. Violence is not an appropriate response. We must not let these tragic events define us as a nation or send us down the wrong path.
“The ABA is urgently exploring opportunities to develop creative solutions to this problem that affects us all. As the voice of the legal profession in America, the ABA calls on all lawyers to work quickly and collaboratively toward viable and just answers to these issues.”
