Philando Castile: My Take

I hadn’t seen the dashcam video of the incident in which St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez shot and killed Philando Castile during a traffic stop until tonight.

After having watched it several times, I can understand why there was reasonable doubt brought on chiefly (I’m guessing) by the lack of credibility of the prosecution’s star witness Diamond Reynolds.

I’m going to note several things here.

1 – Castile did inform the officer that he was armed after he had given the officer his registration. It is possible he was reaching in his pocket for his wallet, where he ostensibly kept his license, but he also knew that his license was suspended. Nonetheless, Yanez seemed pretty calm – even after being told Castile was armed. He casually said “OK, don’t reach for it, then.” There was no tension or panic in his voice.

But then things changed drastically within a couple of seconds.

Yanez casually said “Don’t pull it out.” He said it twice – the second time with more panic in his voice before pulling out his gun and firing several shots into Castile.