The dead passenger did nothing wrong but, on the contrary, did everything right. The involved jittery cop clearly lacked the necessary attributes to bea cop.
Philandro Castile likely made a bad mistake. When you watch the dashcam video, Castile tells the officer that he is armed, and the officer initially does nothing.
Then the officer (Yanes) tells Castile, “don’t reach for it”, repeated, rapidly in command voice. Then he draws and shoots Castile.
Castile did something. He made some sort of move that the officer interpreted as “going for it”.
The officers screwed up as well. They suspected that Castile was an armed robber. It is on the dispatcher’s tape.
The should have done a High Risk stop. They didn’t. If they had, everyone would have gone home ok.
But, it partly explains the mind set of the officer.
Should be Yanez, not Yanes.
Also, Castile’s reactions might have been slowed by Marijuana. He had THC in his system. Yanez said he smelled Marijuana.
I suspect that the danger just did not register with Castile.
He had dozens of traffic stops on his record, and nothing even close to this had happened before.
He could not have been reaching for registration papers, because those had already been given to Yanez.
Maybe he was going for his permit?
Something set off Yanez’ reaction. It was not the mention of a gun. That is clear from the dash cam.
Tragic situation, all around.
I can see why the Jury reached a not guilty verdict. There was plenty of reasonable doubt.
I can’t escape the feeling that that is exactly what happened. Could be all jittery cop but to me there is more to this story.
Castile replies: “I'm not pulling it out.” (unstated "I am getting my driver licence which you have asked for")