(Editor’s note: The video is graphic)

The dash-cam video at the center of the manslaughter trial that recently ended with a not-guilty verdict against the former St. Anthony police officer who shot and killed Philando Castile was released to the public Tuesday.

It shows Jeronimo Yanez drawing his gun seconds after pulling Philando Castile over for a broken taillight last July in Falcon Heights and rapidly firing seven bullets into the 32-year-old black man’s car while his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, and her 4-year-old daughter helplessly watched.

The footage was among several critical pieces of evidence included in the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigative file that was made public late Tuesday afternoon.

Also included in the file was audio of BCA agents’ interview with Yanez the day after the shooting. The 29-year-old Latino officer’s statement was referenced repeatedly by prosecutors throughout his trial as evidence of what they said was the officer’s shifting story about what prompted him to fire. The interview in its entirety was never introduced for jurors’ consideration.

After nearly 30 hours of deliberation, the jury on Friday found Yanez not guilty of second-degree manslaughter and two counts of dangerous discharge of a firearm.

Some members of the public are still reeling from the verdict, and protests broke out throughout the weekend.

THE DASH-CAM VIDEO

Many community members for months had demanded the dash-cam video, which was withheld as Yanez’s case moved through the courts.

With its release Tuesday, members of the public who didn’t attend Yanez’s trial could finally hear the tone in Castile’s voice that Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said had stuck with him when he deliberated over whether to press charges in the case.

“(Castile) was so respectful,” Choi said at a news conference after the verdict was delivered. “… He went beyond what the law requires (of drivers with a permit to carry a firearm). He was compliant. He wasn’t resisting, and at the end of the day, this was a traffic stop.”

Jurors watched the video multiple times throughout the trial. Taken from the camera mounted on Yanez’s squad car’s dashboard, the footage doesn’t show what happened inside Castile’s vehicle, meaning the jury had to decide whose version of events it believed.

From a microphone Yanez wore during the stop, however, jurors could hear Castile’s tone of voice when he said to Yanez: “Sir, I have to tell you, I do have a firearm on me,” and how quickly a traffic stop for a broken taillight turned fatal. Castile was initially pulled over because of the taillight, though Yanez also said Castile resembled a suspect in a recent armed robbery.

Yanez said Castile continued to move his hands toward his black pistol despite the officer’s orders not to reach for it. He testified that Castile was gripping the gun when Yanez opened fire out of fear for his life. Castile had a permit to carry his handgun but hadn’t disclose that to the officer.

The BCA on Tuesday also released audio of interviews, including those with Yanez and Reynolds, who used her cellphone to live-stream the aftermath of the shooting on Facebook.

Reynolds maintained that her boyfriend was trying to unbuckle his seat belt so he could access his wallet and hand over the driver’s license the officer had asked for seconds before the shooting at 9 p.m. July 6.

State prosecutors also emphasized at trial that Yanez’s story didn’t make sense. Why would someone who just revealed to a police officer that he was carrying a firearm then pull it out to shoot, particularly when his girlfriend and a small child were in the car and all that was on the line was a citation for a broken taillight, they asked several witnesses.

Juror Dennis Ploussard told KARE-TV that the dash-cam video was just one of several pieces of evidence the jury weighed.

Although it is powerful footage, he said the officer’s testimony and, most important, the law jurors were asked to apply to the case, ultimately led to the jurors’ decision to acquit.

“I mean (we) looked at the prosecution’s side, and as far as I was concerned, they didn’t prove their case,” Ploussard said.

LAWYERS SAY WATCH CLOSELY

Thomas Kelly, one of Yanez’s defense attorneys, asked the public to pay close attention to Yanez when they watch the video, in particular to the portion of the clip when the officer “(reaches) in the car to try to restrain or prevent Mr. Castile from removing his gun.”

“They should be listening for the clear and loud commands that were given to Mr. Castile,” Kelly continued. “… The reactions of officer Yanez (are what) one would expect from an officer who sees a gun being produced after ordering a motorist not to touch a gun and to comply with his commands.”

He added that the FBI enhanced the video’s audio, meaning what can be heard by the viewing public is not necessarily what Yanez heard.

Glenda Hatchett, the attorney representing the Castile family, told viewers to trust their own perception when they watch the footage.

“I … simply ask people to look carefully at the dash-cam video and judge for themselves,” Hatchett said.

If they do, the president of Communities United Against Police Brutality said people will be able to plainly see that the jury got it wrong.

“(The video) shows Philando calmly stating that he had a firearm and a few seconds later Yanez panicking and shooting wildly into the car,” Michelle Gross said in a prepared statement. “Nothing in the video indicates that Philando Castile was ever a threat to Ofc. Yanez.”

WHAT YANEZ TOLD INVESTIGATOR

Also released as part of the file was Yanez’s interview with BCA agent Doug Henning after the shooting — the interview the jury never got to hear.

During the interview, Yanez initially said he was blocked from seeing where Castile was reaching after Castile told the officer he had a gun.

“It appeared to me that he was wrapping something around his fingers and almost like if I were to put my uh hand around my gun like putting my hand up to the butt of the gun … and then I lost view of it,” Yanez said, according to the BCA’s printed transcript of the interview.

During a later portion of the interview, Yanez said, “It was dark inside the vehicle. I was trying to fumble my way through under stress to look and see what it was to make sure uh what I was seeing. But I wasn’t given enough time and like I said he had no regard for what I was saying.”

He later said, “… as the rounds were going off I thought he was still moving for his gun and, (sigh) I it just seemed like he was pulling out the gun and the barrel just kept coming.”

Henning asked the officer, “It appeared to you, it appeared he had his gun in his hand?”

“… had his gun in his hand,” Yanez replied.

“Okay,” Henning said.

READ MORE: A TRANSCRIPT OF YANEZ’S INTERVIEW WITH INVESTIGATORS

Yanez then told investigators that as he was firing, “I thought I was gonna die and I thought if he’s, if he has the, the guts and the audacity to smoke marijuana in front of the five year old girl and risk her lungs and risk her life by giving her secondhand smoke and the front seat passenger doing the same thing then what, what care does he give about me. And, I let off the rounds and then after the rounds were off, the little girls (sic) was screaming.”

During testimony on the stand, Yanez stated unequivocally that he saw Castile gripping a gun in his hand.

JURORS NEVER HEARD AUDIO OF BCA INTERVIEW

Ramsey County prosecutors did not introduce the BCA interview when they presented their case.

Instead, they attempted to introduce audio of the interview during a cross-examination of Yanez on the stand.

The judge denied the request, questioning their timing. Neither the audio nor the full transcript was ever entered as evidence, though prosecutors read key parts of the transcript when Yanez was on the stand. Related Articles Minneapolis man pleads guilty to torching University Avenue business during May unrest

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Later, during deliberations, the judge denied jurors’s request for a transcript of the interview.

The Ramsey County attorney’s office released a statement following the judge’s decision, saying they didn’t introduce the transcript earlier because they thought the statement would best be used on cross-examination.

“We were still able to introduce his conflicting statements for impeachment purposes, but not in the manner we had planned on, which was to have the defendant listen and respond to questions as it was being played,” the attorney’s office said.

Joe Tamburino, a criminal defense attorney in Minneapolis, believes not admitting the BCA statement “was a tactical decision that the prosecutors made and obviously, it seems to me, that that was a mistake.”

On Tuesday, when asked whether not introducing the testimony earlier was a mistake, a Ramsey County attorney’s office spokesman re-released the earlier statement, with an added sentence, saying, “We believed that our cross-examination addressed all of the relevant conflicting statements that the defendant made during his BCA interview and therefore did not call a rebuttal witness.”

Tamburino said he believed the judge’s decision was “totally proper” because new evidence cannot be introduced when a jury is deliberating.

LAWSUITS AHEAD

With the criminal trial behind them, the Castile family now plans to file a civil lawsuit against Yanez.

Reynolds plans to review the evidence released Tuesday before deciding whether to file her own suit, according to her attorney.

St. Anthony moved immediately after the verdict to dismiss Yanez from its police force.

OFFICER’S INTERVIEW

Here is the BCA interview a day after Castile’s death. Go to page 14 for the start of Yanez talking about whether he saw a gun.