Live video circulates on Facebook as family of Philando Castile, 32, says he died after telling officer he had a licensed firearm and was reaching for wallet

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A video apparently showing the aftermath of a fatal police shooting during a traffic stop in Minnesota has sparked outrage after being circulated online.

Police have confirmed a man was shot by an officer while inside a car with a woman and a child, with local reports saying Philando Castile, 32, died from his wounds.



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Family told local news outlets in St Paul, the state capital, that Castile was in a car stopped by police and had told an officer he was carrying a licensed firearm, then tried to get his wallet out.

The video, posted on Facebook Live on Wednesday night, appeared to show an incident like the one police described. The video showed a woman sitting in a car with a man whose shirt appeared to be soaked in blood, saying an officer shot her boyfriend.

In the video, the woman says the officer asked her boyfriend for his license and registration. She says the man told the officer it was in his wallet but that he also had a pistol he was licensed to carry.

“The officer said, ‘Don’t move,”’ the woman in the video says. “As he was putting his hands back up, the officer shot him in the arm four or five times.”

At one point, the policeman can be heard saying: “I told him not to reach for it. I told him to get his hand out.”

St Anthony interim police chief Jon Mangseth said at a news conference the incident began when an officer from his agency initiated a traffic stop at about 9pm on Wednesday in Falcon Heights, a suburb of St Paul. The officer is now on paid administrative leave, he said, as is standard in such cases.

Valerie Castile told CNN on Thursday that her son didn’t deserve “to be shot down like this”. She said he was just “black in the wrong place” and that he was a victim of “a silent war against African American people”.

She also said she had instructed her son to always “comply” if he was ever stopped by police. Castile is angry that officials wouldn’t let her identify her son’s body and that she will have to wait until after the autopsy to see him.

Mangseth said he didn’t have “much information” about what led to the shooting. He said the woman and child were not hurt.

Mangseth said police were aware of the video but were not commenting further.

The incident follows the police shooting of a man in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, early on Tuesday morning, and widespread national protests over the deaths of black men at the hands of police.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.