page_title: Shooting of Philando Castile
section_title: Protests and civil unrest
hierarchical_section_title: Shooting of Philando Castile / Reactions / Protests and civil unrest
caption_attribution_description: Following the police shooting death of Philando Castile, in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, community members march from the Governor’s mansion to J.J. Hill Montessori School where Castile worked, and back to the Governor’s mansion, in St. Paul. July 7, 2016. Photo: Tony Webster / tony@tonywebster.com
context_page_description: On July 6, 2016, Philando Castile, was a 32-year-old African American man who was fatally shot during a traffic stop by police officer Jeronimo Yanez, a 28-year-old Hispanic member of the St. Anthony, Minnesota police department.
  Castile was driving with his partner, Diamond Reynolds, and her four-year-old daughter when at 9:00 p.m. he was pulled over by Yanez and another officer in Falcon Heights, a suburb of Saint Paul, Minnesota. After being asked for his license and registration, Castile told Officer Yanez that he had a licensed firearm. After a brief exchange in which Yanez told Castile "not to reach for it" and Castile replied that he would not, Yanez fired seven close-range shots at Castile, hitting him five times. Castile died of his wounds at 9:37 p.m. at Hennepin County Medical Center, about 20 minutes after being shot.
  Reynolds posted a live stream video on Facebook in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, and the incident quickly gained national interest. Local and national protests formed, and five months after the incident, Yanez was charged with second-degree manslaughter and two counts of dangerous discharge of a firearm.
context_section_description: By 12:30 a.m. on July 7, about three hours after the shooting, protesters gathered at the scene, "peaceful but visibly angry". More than 200 people were present. After news of Castile's death spread, crowds of protestors gathered outside the Minnesota Governor's Residence in St. Paul, chanting Castile's name and demanding that then-Governor Mark Dayton make a statement. That night, demonstrations in St. Paul continued, remaining "peaceful but forceful".
  Nekima Levy-Pounds, president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP, said that her group would request a federal investigation. She also called for an independent body to investigate the shooting, expressing skepticism with the state agency that is leading the investigation of the incident, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, a division of the Department of Public Safety. NAACP president Cornell William Brooks said, "I'm waiting to hear the human outcry from Second Amendment defenders over [this incident]..." Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson said, "Philando Castile should be alive today". On July 8, over 1,000 demonstrators shut down Interstate 880 in Oakland, California, for several hours to protest Castile's shooting death and that of Alton Sterling the day before.
  After two days of peaceful protests and vigils, violence between protesters and police in St. Paul broke out on July 9 and 10. Some 102 people were arrested and 21 officers (15 police officers and six Minnesota State Patrol officers) had been injured, one of them seriously. A group threw rocks, bottles, and Molotov cocktails at police and police used pepper spray and tear gas to disperse the crowd. The protesters caused Interstate 94 in between Minnesota State Highway 280 and downtown St. Paul to be closed. After they were dispersed from the highway, another group of protests took place at Dale and Grand Avenue. The violence was condemned by President Obama, Governor Dayton, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, and Police Chief Todd Axtell, who called for calm.
  After the shooting, a number of activists established an encampment outside of the Governor's Residence. On July 18, demonstrators cleared the encampment and moved off the road after police directed them to move, saying that they could continue to protest "as long as it was done on the sidewalk" and did not impede vehicle or pedestrian traffic. The interactions between police and demonstrators were peaceful, and no arrests were made.
  On July 19, 21 protesters—mostly members of the St. Paul and Minneapolis teachers' federations—were arrested willingly at a protest in Minneapolis after blocking a street in Minneapolis and refusing orders to disperse. The teachers marched from the Minneapolis Convention Center (where an American Federation of Teachers convention was being held) to the Nicollet Mall area; they were cited for misdemeanor public nuisance and released.
caption: Black Lives Matter protesting in Saint Paul, Minnesota on July 7
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