On June 16 the Minnesota police officer charged with “second-degree manslaughter” and “two counts of intentional discharge of a firearm that endangers safety” was acquitted.
The officer–Jeronimo Yanez–existed the courtroom with his family through one exit while the family of Castille “screamed profanities” and exited through another.
According to CNN, following the verdict, Castille’s mother–Valerie Castille–said:
The system continues to fail black people. My son loved this city and this city killed my son and the murderer gets away! Are you kidding me right now? We’re not evolving as a civilization, we’re devolving. We’re going back down to 1969. What is it going to take?
Castille mentions the late 1960s because that is when Democrats in the South–like Alabama Public Service Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor–refused to let black citizens share in the freedoms enjoyed by white citizens.
The Twin Cities Pioneer Press reports that when officer Yanez approached the car, Castille said, “I do have a firearm on me.” Castile’s girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds,, who was also in the car, claims Castille was shot and killed by officer Yanez after “trying to unbuckle his seat belt so he could access his wallet and hand over the driver’s license.” Yanez interpreted the movement as Castille reached for a gun.
Reynolds filmed her boyfriend’s death and posted it to Facebook Live.
Video: GRAPHIC CONTENT
After the incident Reynold’s said, “These police are not here to protect and serve us. They are here to assassinate us, they are here to kill us, because we are black.”
Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton (D) apologized for the shooting of Castille and said he did not think the officer would have shot if Castille had been white.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.