Policeman acquitted

Minnesota officer is found not guilty in the fatal shooting of Philando Castile.

A jury on Friday found 29year-old Minnesota police officer Jeronimo Yanez not guilty in the fatal shooting of black motorist Philando Castile during a traffic stop near St. Paul, an incident partially broadcast on Facebook Live.

Yanez was charged with second-degree manslaughter and faced up to 10 years in prison. The jury also found him not guilty of two counts of reckless discharge of a firearm.

After the verdict, the city of St. Anthony, where Yanez was employed, announced he would not return to active duty and would be offered a separation package to leave the force.

Castile’s mother, Valerie Castile, expressed anger and bewilderment during a televised news conference after the verdict.

“My son loved this state,” she said. “He had one tattoo on his body, and it was of the Twin Cities — the state of Minnesota with ‘TC’ on it. My son loved this city, and this city killed my son, and a murderer gets away.”

People have died to advance civil rights, she continued, but civilization was now devolving, not evolving. “We’re going back to 1969. Damn!” she said.

Castile’s death last July garnered national attention when Castile’s girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, began broadcasting on Facebook Live shortly after he was shot. The video quickly went viral and prompted dayslong demonstrations in Minnesota.

The video shows that, in the moments before Castile died, a calm Reynolds tells him “stay with me,” and then explains they had been pulled over for a broken taillight.

When Yanez pulled over the 32-year-old school cafeteria manager, who was in the car with Reynolds and her 4-year-old daughter, Castile told Yanez that he had a gun with him and was licensed to carry it, according to prosecutors. Yanez, who said he feared for his life, shot Castile moments later.

During the trial, Yanez testified that he saw Castile’s gun and that Castile had ignored his orders not to pull it out. But prosecutors argued that that was impossible and that Yanez had racially profiled Castile and pulled him over because he looked like a suspect in a robbery that had occurred earlier in the day.