Philando Castile, a 32-year- old black man and school cafeteria worker, was shot to death by
police in a suburb of St. Paul, Minn., on July 6 after being pulled over at around 9 pm for a
broken tail light. When ordered to produce identification, Mr. Castille informed the police officer
that he was legally armed with a concealed carry permit for a handgun. As Mr. Castile slowly
raised his hands above his head, the officer then proceeded to shoot Mr. Castille multiple times
in front of his girlfriend, Lavisha Reynold, and her four-year- old daughter. Neither the girlfriend
nor the daughter was hurt, although the Ms. Reynold was handcuffed and she and her daughter
taken into custody. Police reportedly did not offer food or water to the woman or her child. They
were not released until 5 am. Meanwhile, community outrage grew after Ms. Reynold’s live
video broadcast of the incident went viral after being published on her Facebook page.
According to “The Counted,” a running tally of Americans killed by police and maintained by
the Guardian, a free international newspaper available on the internet, Mr. Castile is the 136th
black man killed by police in 2016. The officer, who was not identified, has been placed on 30-
day paid leave pending a St. Paul police investigation. However, President Barrack Obama
ordered the Civil Right Division of the US Justice Department to initiate another federal
investigation and Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton blamed the death of Mr. Castille on racial
bias. This is the third fatal shooting of a black man in the US by police in less than a week and
has led to protests about the treatment of African Americans who appear to be carrying firearms
either legally or in a non-threatening manner as millions of white Americans do every day
without being killed.
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