“I don’t want you to get shooted mommy.”
St. Paul, MN — Last week Americans became outraged after a Minnesota jury found St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez not guilty in the 2016 shooting of Philando Castile. On Wednesday, following the release of the dashcam footage, the in-car video of Diamond Reynolds and her daughter was released. It is nothing short of heart-wrenching.
After watching a cop shot and kill her fiancé, Diamond Reynolds was handcuffed and arrested — for no reason. A responding officer held her and her daughter at gunpoint with an AR-15.
She was thrown in the back of the police cruiser as her daughter pleaded with her mother to make sure she wouldn’t get shot.
The 4-year-old child had just witnessed a cop kill an innocent man as he attempted to reach for his concealed carry license and now she finds herself being kidnapped by the assailant.
“Fuck!” screams Reynolds as she sits helplessly handcuffed in the back of the car.
“Please don’t scream because I don’t want you to get shooted,” says the courageous little girl. “I can keep you safe.”
“I can’t believe they just did that,” Reynolds notes as her daughter breaks into tears.
“I wish this town was safer. I wish police wouldn’t have to kill people,” her daughter says as she breaks down.
After handcuffing her, Reynolds was not taken to the hospital to see if Castile was okay. Instead, she was taken to the police station where she was interrogated and treated like a criminal.
As she was questioned, she was not allowed to leave, her phone was confiscated, and she recalls being treated like a prisoner.
Officers told Diamond Reynolds they needed to interview her before taking her to the hospital or returning her phone. pic.twitter.com/46ybZbguol
— Tony Webster (@webster) June 21, 2017
In yet another heartbreaking video, after pleading with the police to let her go to the hospital, Reynolds is told that Castile did not make it. She immediately loses it.
Here"s the moment state BCA investigators got a text that Philando Castile died, and gave the news to Diamond Reynolds. pic.twitter.com/sjmKRPLcMw
— Tony Webster (@webster) June 21, 2017
Philando Castile was not a criminal. He was an upstanding member of society who happened to have a broken tail light and get targetted for revenue collection by officer Yanez. Because Yanez was a coward, Castile is dead.
READ MORE: Video Shows Cowardly Cops Shoot Unarmed Teen As He Lays on the Ground
“There has always been a systemic problem in the state of Minnesota, and me thinking, common sense that we would get justice. But nevertheless, the system continues to fail black people,” Valerie Castile, Philando’s mother said. “My son loved this city, and the city killed my son and the murderer gets away.”
What does it say about police in America when they can kill innocent people — on video — and not only escape accountability but keep their jobs?
Officer Yanez is guilty. Had he not been a police officer, rest assured that he would be in a jail cell right now.
“We continue to believe the killing of Philando was senseless, without cause, and veiled in unfounded racial fear and prejudice,” state lawmakers in the Minnesota House People of Color and Indigenous Caucus said in a statement, adding that “urgent reform of our policing and criminal justice systems is needed.”
Urgent reform, however, will not give Diamond Reynolds back her fiancé.
No comments:
Post a Comment