by ERIK ORTIZ and THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Minnesota prosecutors filed charges Wednesday against the police officer who fatally shot driver Philando Castile — the bloody aftermath of which was livestreamed on Facebook in a video that went viral.
St. Anthony police Officer Jeronimo Yanez was charged with second-degree manslaughter and two felony counts of dangerous discharge of a firearm in the July 6 traffic stop in Falcon Heights, a Twin Cities suburb.
"It is my conclusion that the use of deadly force was not justified," Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said at a news conference.
Yanez was not arrested but was given a summons to appear in court Friday, Choi said.
In the cellphone video, Castile's fiancée, who was with him in the car along with her 4-year-old daughter, said he was shot several times while reaching for his ID after telling Yanez he had a gun permit and was armed.
"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 was — he had a firearm and he was reaching for his wallet," Diamond Reynolds calmly tells the camera as Castile lies beside her bleeding.
Yanez's attorney, Tom Kelly, has said Yanez, who is Latino, was reacting to the presence of a gun, and that one reason Yanez pulled Castile over was because he thought he looked like a possible match for an armed robbery suspect. Castile was later determined to not be a suspect in that robbery.
Yanez's partner at the scene, Officer Joseph Kauser, was cleared of any wrongdoing.
Philando Castile Courtesy of Castile Family
But family members claimed Castile, a 32-year-old elementary school cafeteria worker, was racially profiled because he was black.
Choi got the case in late September and began reviewing the evidence for possible charges. Choi resisted pressure immediately after the shooting to turn the case over to a special prosecutor, but added one to his team to get an outside perspective. He also enlisted the help of national use-of-force consultants.
"There was absolutely no criminal intent throughout this encounter," Choi said Wednesday of Castile's actions. "He was compliant."
Castile's shooting prompted numerous protests, including a weekslong demonstration outside the governor's mansion and one rally that shut down Interstate 94 in St. Paul for hours.
Related: Philando Castile and Cop Who Killed Him Crossed Paths Before, Records Show
Castile's extensive driving record raised questions about the biased targeting of minority drivers — a pattern that was blasted by a Department of Justice report in Ferguson, Missouri, following the fatal shooting of black teenager Michael Brown.
His driving record shows that he had received 82 non-parking citations — 47 of which were eventually dismissed.
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