Philando Castile, a 32-year- old black man and school cafeteria worker, was shot to death

July 11, 2016

_90315344_mediaitem90315343Philando 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.