People have taken to social media and the streets to protest the police killing of a school employee in Minnesota, after the Facebook Live video stream of the incident spread quickly across online networks.
Philando Castile, 32, was fatally shot Wednesday by police during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights, near the Twin Cities. Video of the aftermath of the shooting was streamed live on a private Facebook account belonging to Lavish Reynolds, also in the car at the time of the shooting.
The clip was quickly shared on Twitter ,Facebook and YouTube in advance of reporting on traditional news outlets, including local coverage in the Minneapolis area.
The video was briefly removed from Facebook, but was later restored with a graphic warning attached.
The terms #FalconHeightsShooting and #PhilandoCastile were trending on Twitter early Thursday. Some comments brought home the part played by the Facebook Live video, while others were angry:
Without the video no one would have believed this happened. What other incidents DON'T we know about?#PhilandoCastile
— Cordelia (@Cordelia_89) July 7, 2016
#PhilandoCastile was reaching for his license and told cop he was carrying. Murdered in front of his family for complying. WHY???
— Melanie Florence (@mflowrites) July 7, 2016
Others paid tribute to Castile:
#PhilandoCastile was an "upstanding man," who cooked for the "little kids" in a school cafeteria, an uncle says https://t.co/YPVs3tRMoa
— Tony paark (@Tonyparkbarnes) July 7, 2016
Many were moved by the footage, and noted the demeanor of Reynolds:
The number of times this could be repeated with other names breaks me…We are broken. #PhilandoCastile https://t.co/vlfIzY7HkZ
— Nicole Stroot (@NicoleStroodel) July 7, 2016
Couldnt watch the #PhilandoCastile video w dry eyes. Words cant even express how tragic that whole video is. But that is a courageous woman
— Kay❣ (@JerseyGrlAbroad) July 7, 2016
Reynolds, who describes herself as Castile’s girlfriend, can be heard commenting throughout the nearly 10-minute recording, which zooms in on at least one officer and the fatally wounded man, as well as the woman’s young daughter who was in the back seat.
Reynolds at one point says the officer opened fire “for no apparent reason.” In the background, one of the officers can be heard shouting: “I told him not to reach for it. I told him to get his hands up.”
The local police department released a statement confirming that a fatal incident had occurred.
In the early hours, an angry group began protesting at the scene of the shooting, posts to social media showed:
A group of protestors have started gathering at the #falcolnheightsshooting @wccoradio @wcco pic.twitter.com/hPvj3izebJ
— Lindsay Guentzel (@LindsayGuentzel) July 7, 2016
“Black Lives Matter” banners were carried by people gathered outside the Governor’s mansion in St. Paul:
The scene outside the Governor's mansion in St. Paul https://t.co/jfncjzH6et #PhilandoCastile @StarTribune pic.twitter.com/Q9dLHqC9jq
— Leila Navidi (@LeilaNavidi) July 7, 2016
The incident follows another high-profile fatal shooting this week of a black man by police officers. In that incident, in Baton Rouge, La., a bystander made a phone video recording that was later shared, including by news outlets. In the Louisiana case, in which Alton Sterling, 37, was killed, police officers said their own body-mounted cameras came loose during the arrest.
The Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into the Sterling case.
This article was originally published on Marketwatch.
