June 20 (UPI) -- Authorities in St. Anthony, Minn., released the dashcam video of the fatal police shooting of Philando Castile after officer Jeronimo Yanez was acquitted of second-degree manslaughter.
The video shows Yanez pulling over Castile for a malfunctioning brake light on July 6, 2016. After he asks for Castile's license and registration, Castile warns Yanez that he has a firearm on his person.
Yanez then tells tells Castile, "OK, don't reach for it."
"I'm not pulling it out," Castile says.
Related
Yanez again says not to pull the gun out and then fires eight shots into the car.
Yanez's partner, Joseph Kauser, was standing on the passenger side of the vehicle when Yanez opened fire but never pulled out his gun. He instead jumped out of the way of Yanez's bullets. As Yanez yelled out "Don't move!," Kauser returned to the vehicle to pull out the 4-year-old daughter of Diamond Reynolds, Castile's girlfriend.
Kauser would later say that he was "absolutely" surprised when Yanez opened fire.
As Castile was dying from the gunshot wounds, Reynolds, sitting in the passenger seat, began a Facebook Live stream to broadcast the incident. That video brought national attention to the Castile shooting, which some deemed an example of racially motivated excessive force.
Yanez, who is Latino, was charged with second-degree manslaughter and endangering safety by discharging a firearm. But a jury found him not guilty of the charges.
He was fired from his job as a St Anthony cop.
"The City of St. Anthony has concluded that the public will be best served if Officer Yanez is no longer a police officer in our city," the city said in a statement.
Some who disagreed with Yanez's acquittal said the video proved the verdict was a miscarriage of justice.
Tyrone Terrill, president of the African-American Leadership Council, told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune the video will further the gap between the black community and local police.
"No, no, no," Terrill said 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?"
