Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton on Thursday forcefully condemned the police officers involved in the shooting of a 32-year-old black man, singling out the shooting as an example of "racism" and an incident that would have played out differently if it didn't involve black Americans.
"Would this have happened if the passengers were white? I don't think it would have," said Dayton, speaking at a news conference Thursday afternoon after protesters had gathered earlier in the day in front of the governor's St. Paul mansion demanding "justice for Philando."
Philando Castile was fatally shot Wednesday after what began as a routine traffic stop in a St. Paul suburb.
The dramatic cellphone video of the aftermath of the shooting broadcast live on Facebook by the man's girlfriend, Diamond "Lavish" Reynolds, has drawn demands for a federal investigation, demonstrators around the region and scrutiny from politicians, including President Barack Obama.
The nearly 10-minute video, posted late Wednesday, captures Castile moaning in pain with blood soaking his white T-shirt. The arm of what appears to be a police officer shakily points a gun through the car window at the man. Reynolds said she filmed the scene after her boyfriend had been shot three to five times.
"We got pulled over for a busted taillight in the back and the police just ... killed my boyfriend. ... He's licensed to carry. He was trying to get out his ID and his wallet out of 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," a woman who was a passenger in the car says in the video.
The officer interrupts, tells her to keep her hands visible. "I told him not to reach for it! "I told him to get his hands up."
"You told him to get his ID, sir _ his driver's license," Reynolds says she told the officer.
"Oh, my God, please don't tell me he's dead. Please don't tell me my boyfriend just went like that," she then says.
The shooting occurred in Falcon Heights, a sleepy St. Paul suburb known for hosting the state fair, and happened less than two days after the fatal police shooting of Alton Sterling, a man who was selling CDs in front of a Baton Rouge, La., minimart. Sterling's death has sparked street protests and now is being investigated by federal authorities.
Interim St. Anthony Police Chief Jon Mangseth confirmed the shooting at a short press conference early Thursday and said the man who was shot had died. He said that the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was handling the investigation, a standard procedure in officer-involved shootings.
"A handgun was recovered from the scene," Mangseth said, adding that the officer was put on paid administrative leave. He said police are aware of the video.
At one point in the video, which was streamed live and viewed more than 1 million times, officers can be heard ordering Reynolds out of the car as she asks about her young daughter, who was in the back seat.
The phone appears to fall to the ground as it records, and later captures Reynolds in the back of a police car with her daughter, who tells her, "It's OK mommy. It's OK, I'm right here with you."
Mangseth declined to discuss the video, and a spokesman for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said he could not provide more information Thursday. A statement from Hennepin County spokeswoman Carolyn Marinan said the county's medical examiner will perform an autopsy Thursday.
Demonstrators gathered early Thursday near the site of the shooting as a second crowd grew outside the governor's mansion, holding signs that said "Justice for Philando." NAACP leaders, including Minneapolis NAACP President Nekima Levy-Pounds, called for an investigation into the shooting, saying, "Enough is enough."
"We are just beyond outraged at the fact that a 4-year-old" witnessed the death, said Levy-Pounds, referring to Reynolds' daughter. She called the shooting "murder" and said it showed that "black lives don't really matter in Minnesota."
Politicians, including Dayton, released statements Thursday requesting that the Department of Justice open an investigation.
Dayton, who said he spoke with the White House and asked for a federal investigation, said he would "do everything in my power to help protect the integrity of that investigation."
Rep. Keith Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat whose district is about two miles from the shooting scene, told CNN that the incident was part of a "systematic targeting of African-Americans and a systemic lack of accountability."
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Thursday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the president was aware of the shootings in Minnesota and Louisiana and was "deeply disturbed" by them. "This does not need to be the status quo that we tolerate. ... This continues to be a very high priority of the president."
Speaking on background, a Department of Justice official said it was "aware of the incident and is assessing the situation" but did not confirm an investigation would be launched. The Department of Justice has opened an investigation into an earlier police shooting in Baton Rouge, where Sterling, 37, was killed outside a convenience store.
On Thursday morning, a friend of Reynolds streamed a news conference on Facebook where Reynolds elaborated on the shooting and described Castile, who worked at J.J. Hill Montessori Magnet School in St. Paul and had worked for St. Paul Public Schools since 2001.
"We got pulled over for an allegedly broken taillight," said Reynolds, who said the officer asked her and Castile if they knew the light was broken.
"As we said no, he tells us to put our hands in the air" and asks for identification. My boyfriend carries all his information in a thick wallet in his back pocket. As he reaches for the wallet, he lets the officer know, 'I have a gun on me.'
"I yell, 'He has a license to carry!'" Reynolds said, describing the moment before she said she heard a "boom boom boom boom!"
Reynolds said she and Castile were returning from the grocery store and had just dropped off her sister, who lives near the fairgrounds.
"He was never a bad man, he never did anything to hurt anyone. He was the quietest, most laid-back person you'd ever meet. He was loving. ... Nothing within his body language said, 'Kill me.'"
Asked why she broadcast the video, she said: "I wanted to everyone in the world to know that no matter how much police tamper evidence, how much they stick together ... I wanted to put it on Facebook and go viral so that people can see ... I wanted people to see."
