Remembering Philando Castile

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Within 36 hours of hearing about the shooting death of Alton Sterling, a Facebook live video went viral of Philando Castile who was shot by police in Minnesota.

What happened to Philando Castile?

Castile was in the passenger seat in the car with his fiancé when they were pulled over for an alleged broken tail light. When Lavish Reynolds begins live streaming, Castile is slumped over with apparent gun wounds as blood is smeared over his shirt. With composure, Reynolds begins narrating what happened while you can hear her daughter crying in the background. Within an hour the video went viral.

Traffic stop gone wrong

Reynolds and Castile were stopped by Falcon Heights Police in Minnesota around 9 p.m. on July 6th, 2016.  The officer, who has not been identified, asked the two to put their hands up and to get their identification. Castile, who is a licensed concealed weapon carrier, told the officer he had a concealed weapon. Within a matter of seconds, Reynolds says the officer shoots not one but five shots into Castile. Castile would later die of his wounds.

Reynolds said on the video that the officer “asked him for license and registration. He told him that it was in his wallet, but he had a pistol on him because he’s licensed to carry. 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.”

Philando Castile was loved

Castile was a food supervisor at JJ Hill Monterossi School in Minnesota who was described as a good person.

“He lived by the law and died by the law,” his mother, Valerie Castile, told a WCCO TV reporter. She confirmed that he had died in a local hospital.

“This was a GOOD MAN,” a parent of a child at the school wrote on Facebook, saying that Castile snuck extra graham crackers to children and hugged a borderline autistic child every day. He “pushed extra food in them like a grandma” and took care to know every single child’s name.

Philando’s uncle, Clarence, said Philando had worked in the cafeteria for 12 to 15 years “cooking for the little kids,” according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Clarence Castile called Philando “a good kid” and said he grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, also living in Minneapolis.

Philando’s family said he was never in the eye of the law only receiving tickets for minor traffic stops. Philando’s cousin, Antonio Johnson, 31, told the Star-Tribune that Philando was an honor student at St. Paul Central High School, “where he was a straight-A student.” He called Castile “very nonconfrontational”, and said some of his friends called him “Doc.”

#PhilandoCastile was a graduate of my high school, St. Paul Central.

This is his yearbook photo.#BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/rUCz574gbz

— Rachel West (@rwest817) July 7, 2016

Governor Dayton’s statement

In a news conference, the governor of Minnesota said Castile’s shooting is a pattern of unfair, disparate, treatment towards blacks. “Would this have happened if the driver were white, if the passengers were white?” Gov. Mark Dayton asked at a news conference. “I don’t think it would have.”

Governor Dayton said he had heard from many black people, including some in positions of authority, about “how they’ve been pulled over, singled out,” in a way that white people would not have. “I’ve been told by very respectable African American leaders that they understand how this dynamic goes on.”

Mr. Dayton and members of the state’s congressional delegation asked for the Justice Department to investigate the death of Philando Castile.