Jeronimo Yanez was acquitted Friday after killing Philando Castile last July. Castile, unarmed, had disclosed to Yanez that he was a legal owner of a concealed-carry firearm as he reached for his driver’s license, as Yanez had requested. Yanez shot him seven times in front of his wife and child, later claiming that the smell of marijuana, and his inability to see what Castile was reaching for, justified the killing. Viewers watched the aftermath on Facebook Live, broadcast by Castile’s distraught wife. The Star-Tribune synchronized and superimposed the two videos — only the dashcam footage is embedded above.
Tyrone Terrill, president of the African-American Leadership Council, said the video could further widen the gap in community-police relations.
“No, no, no,” Terrill said minutes after viewing the video. “You don’t have to remain calm on this one. You have a right to be outraged. You have a right to be angry. And I would be disappointed if you weren’t outraged, if you weren’t angry. It raises the question — how will you ever get a guilty verdict?”
unbelievable. #PhilandoCastillehttps://t.co/UXmTOzEEie
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) June 20, 2017
He said he tried to point the gun away from the little girl in the back seat. He heard her screaming. “I acknowledged the little girl first because I wanted her to be safe.”
Yanez attended a training course that teaches cops to think like “bulletproof warriors”, to shoot without a second thought, and that the rush of killing people leads to “the best sex of their lives”
In the class recorded for “Do Not Resist,” Grossman at one point tells his students that the sex they have after they kill another human being will be the best sex of their lives. The room chuckles. But he’s clearly serious. “Both partners are very invested in some very intense sex,” he says. “There’s not a whole lot of perks that come with this job. You find one, relax and enjoy it.”
The NRA remains silent on the public, peremptory execution of a legal gun owner. I wonder what it is about this case, this man, that inspired their disinterest in his second-amendment rights.
