Minnesota officer acquitted in fatal shooting
Death of black man spurred protests; city to dismiss policeman
A Minnesota police officer is acquitted of manslaughter in the fatal shooting of Philando Castile, a black motorist whose girlfriend streamed the aftermath live on Facebook, drawing an angry reaction from Castile’s family and sparking a protest at the state Capitol.
ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Minnesota police officer was acquitted of manslaughter Friday in the fatal shooting of Philando Castile, a black motorist whose girlfriend streamed the aftermath live on Facebook.
Jeronimo Yanez also was cleared of two lesser charges in the July traffic stop in a St. Paul suburb. Jurors deliberated for about 29 hours over five days before reaching the verdict in the death of Castile, who was shot just seconds after informing Yanez that he was carrying a gun.
Castile’s family members reacted angrily, with his mother, Valerie, standing and swearing as the verdict was read. She and other family members immediately tried to leave the courtroom and did so after security officers briefly barred the way.
Outside the courthouse, Valerie Castile said Yanez, who is Latino, got away with “murder,” noting that her son was wearing a seatbelt and in a car with his girlfriend and her then-4-yearold daughter when he was shot.
“He didn’t deserve to die the way he did,” Philando Castile’s sister, Allysza, said, through tears. “I will never have faith in the system.”
Yanez testified that Castile was pulling his gun out of his pocket despite commands not to. The defense argued Castile was high on marijuana and said that affected his actions.
Yanez stared ahead with no reaction as the verdict was read. Afterward, one of his attorneys, Tom Kelly, said the defense was “satisfied.”
“We were confident in our client. We felt all along his conduct was justified. However, that doesn’t take away from the tragedy of the event,” Kelly said.
Despite the acquittal, the city of St. Anthony announced it will dismiss Yanez, saying the public “will be best served” if he leaves the force.
Prosecutors declined to comment. Castile had a permit for the weapon, and prosecutors questioned whether Yanez ever saw it. They argued that the officer overreacted and that Castile was not a threat.
Juror Dennis Ploussard said the jury was split 10-2 this week in favor of acquittal. They spent a lot of time dissecting the “culpable negligence” requirement for conviction, and the last two holdouts agreed Friday on acquittal. He said the jury sympathizes with the Castile family.
“We struggled with it. I struggled with it. It was very, very hard,” Ploussard said.
He would not identify the two early holdouts but said they were not the jury’s only two black members. The rest of the jurors were white. None was Latino.
Castile’s shooting was among a string of killings of blacks by police around the U.S., and the livestreaming of its aftermath by Castile’s girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, attracted even more attention. The public outcry included protests in Minnesota that shut down highways and surrounded the governor’s mansion.
Later Friday, a few hundred people chanting “No justice, no peace, prosecute the police” gathered at Minnesota’s state Capitol to protest the acquittal.