An extremely graphic video posted to Facebook Live on 6 July 2016 shows a man apparently shot by police during a routine traffic stop in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. The video shows Philando Castile gasping for breath as he slumps over in the driver's seat of a car, covered in blood:
Castile's girlfriend, Diamond "Lavish" Reynolds, was in the car along with her 4-year-old daughter. After Castile was shot, she began recording video with her phone and streaming it live on Facebook. The social media site took the video down a few hours later, but not before it was shared hundreds of thousands of times and posted to other sites. (The video was later restored by Facebook with an apology, blaming "technical difficulties.")
Twin Cities affiliate WCCO has a transcript of the video:
Reynolds: Stay with me. We got pulled over for a busted tail light in the back and he’s covered … they killed my boyfriend. He’s licensed to carry. He was trying to get out his ID and his wallet out his pocket and he let the officer know that he had a firearm and he was reaching for his wallet and the officer just shot him in his arm.
Officer: Ma’am, keep your hands where they are.
Reynolds: I am sir, no worries.
Officer: [Yells expletive.]
Reynolds: He just got his arm shot off. We got pulled over on Larpenteur.
Officer: I told him not to reach for it! I told him to get his head up!
Reynolds: He had, you told him to get his ID, sir, his driver’s license. Please don’t tell me he’s dead.
Officer: [Expletive.]
Reynolds: Please don’t tell me my boyfriend just went like that.
Officer: Keep your hands where they are.
Reynolds: Yes I will, sir. I will keep my hands where they are. Please don’t tell me that he’s gone. Please don’t tell me that he’s gone. Please officer, don’t tell me that you just did this to him. You shot four bullets into him, sir. He was just getting his license and registration, sir.
[Silence]
Other Officer: Get the female passenger out of the car.
Reynolds: Where’s my daughter? You have my daughter?”
[Five Minutes Later]
Reynolds: I got … the Roseville Police got me handcuffed, my phone is about to die. I’m on Larpenteur and Fry and the Roseville Police Department just shot my boyfriend. They shot him four times. He has a license to carry. We had a busted tail light. And we had some weed in the car that’s about it.
Castile, who would have been 33 two days after the shooting, was pronounced dead at a hospital later that night. Reynolds was handcuffed and detained on unspecified charges.