(HUFFINGTON POST) Police shot and killed a man Wednesday in the St. Paul suburb of Falcon Heights, Minnesota, and his girlfriend recorded the aftermath in a graphic video shot using the Facebook Live feature.
The video shows the man bleeding from gunshot wounds as his girlfriend films from the driver’s seat. The police officer “shot him three times because we had a busted tail light,” the woman filming can be heard saying.
Officials have not officially released the victim’s name, but his family identified him as Philando Castile, local news station WCCO reported. He was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis and relatives told The Star-Tribune he died at the hospital.
The 10-minute video of the incident was posted to Facebook by user Lavish Reynolds, and was removed for several hours Wednesday night before being reposted with a warning about its graphic content.
While filming, the woman explains that the officer asked her boyfriend for his license and registration, and that he told the officer he had a pistol and was licensed to carry.
The St. Anthony Police Department later confirmed that at least one man was injured during the traffic stop in an officer-involved shooting, according to local FOX affiliate KMSP.
A police spokesperson said during a press conference Wednesday that the shooting is currently under investigation by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and that no officer was injured during the incident. The officer involved in the shooting was placed on paid administrative leave.
Castile’s death at the hands of police comes just a day after local cops shot another black man, Alton Sterling, in circumstances that shocked the world. Sterling was selling CDs outside a store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Tuesday when police, responding to a complaint about a man wielding a gun, tackled him in order to arrest him.
Someone yelled that Sterling had a gun and the police shot him at point-blank range while he was subdued on the ground. The shooting was captured in a graphic video that roiled the public’s conscience. The subsequent release of another video confirmed that Sterling did not have a gun on his person at the time.
Many observers are expressing dismay at the regularity with which police kill unarmed black men in the United States.
See the video. Warning: Graphic Images and Language
