Philando Castile

Case background and investigation

On the evening of July 6, 2016, Philando Castile, a 32-year-old Black man who worked as a nutrition-services supervisor at a Montessori school in St. Paul, was driving through Falcon Heights, Minnesota, a suburb of St. Paul, with his girlfriend Diamond Reynolds and her four-year-old daughter. At about 9:05 p.m., St. Anthony Police Department officer Jeronimo Yanez pulled the car over near Larpenteur Avenue and Fry Street. A second officer, Joseph Kauser, was also present.

Yanez stopped the vehicle for a broken taillight. According to the official account and dashcam evidence later released, Castile informed Yanez that he had a firearm in the car. Castile had a valid permit to carry. Yanez told Castile not to reach for the gun. Within seconds, Yanez fired seven shots into the vehicle at close range, striking Castile five times. Castile was transported to Hennepin County Medical Center, where he died at approximately 9:37 p.m.

Immediately after the shooting, Diamond Reynolds began broadcasting on Facebook Live from the passenger seat, narrating the aftermath as Castile lay mortally wounded beside her. The roughly ten-minute video spread internationally within hours and became one of the most widely viewed livestreamed accounts of a police shooting. The killing occurred one day after the police shooting of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and intensified a national debate over police use of force against Black Americans.

In November 2016, Ramsey County Attorney John Choi charged Yanez with one count of second-degree manslaughter and two counts of dangerous discharge of a firearm. It was among the first times a Minnesota police officer had been criminally charged for an on-duty shooting. Yanez testified in his own defense, stating that he believed Castile was reaching for the gun and feared for his life; prosecutors argued the shooting was an unreasonable overreaction. These competing characterizations of what Castile was doing in the moments before the shooting remained contested at trial.

The trial began May 30, 2017, before Ramsey County District Judge William H. Leary III. After roughly 25 hours of deliberation over five days, the jury acquitted Yanez of all charges on June 16, 2017. No conviction resulted from the shooting. Hours after the verdict, the city of St. Anthony announced that Yanez would not return to the police department.

Yanez separated from the St. Anthony Police Department under an agreement that included a payment of about $48,500 plus compensation for unused time. In the civil arena, the city and its insurers reached a settlement of nearly $3 million (reported at $2.995 million) with Castile's mother, Valerie Castile, in late June 2017, and an $800,000 settlement with Diamond Reynolds and her daughter in November 2017. Valerie Castile has since become a prominent advocate for police accountability, and a foundation established in Philando Castile's name has paid off school-lunch debt and funded related causes. In later years, Yanez unsuccessfully sought a Minnesota substitute-teaching license, a bid state education officials rejected and courts ultimately upheld.