Mark Dayton says level of force was ‘way in excess’ of what was necessary and demands justice department investigation as Obama calls shootings ‘a serious problem’
The fatal shooting of a black man by police in Minnesota was attributed to racism by the state’s governor on Thursday, as Barack Obama urged Americans to admit that the country faced a “serious problem” of prejudice in law enforcement.
Dispensing with the caution typically shown by elected leaders following shootings by police, Governor Mark Dayton blamed the death of Philando Castile on racial bias and said the officer involved used a level of force “way in excess” of what was necessary. “Would this have happened if the driver and passenger were white?” Dayton asked at a press conference. “I don’t think it would have. So I’m forced to confront, and I think all of Minnesota is forced to confront, that this kind of racism exists.”
The killing of Castile, 32, is the latest to roil the US in the nearly two years since the fatal shooting by police of an unarmed black 18-year-old in Ferguson, Missouri, led to waves of unrest around the country. Castile’s death was broadcast live on Facebook by his girlfriend after he was shot by an officer through the window of their car during a traffic stop near St Paul on Wednesday evening. Castile had been reaching for identification after warning the officer that he was legally carrying a handgun, according to his girlfriend. It was the second time this week that the killing by police of an African American was captured on widely shared cellphone video. On Tuesday, 37-year-old Alton Sterling was shot dead during a struggle with two officers in Baton Rouge,Louisiana. Sterling, who was selling CDs outside a shop, appeared to have a pistol in his pocket. Obama said Americans “should be deeply troubled” by the two shootings, as he suggested it was necessary to “admit we’ve got a serious problem” with racial bias or its appearance among some police officers. “We’ve seen such tragedies far too many times,” Obama said of the Sterling and Castile killings, in a Facebook post.
The two men were the 135th and 136th African Americans to be killed by police across the US in 2016, according to anongoing Guardian project to document every death caused by law enforcement officers. In total, 561 people have been killed so far this year. Castile’s mother, Valerie, said she was outraged by the death of the 32-year-old school cafeteria worker. “Every day you hear of another black person being shot down – gunned down – by the people who are supposed to protect us,” she told CNN. Some of the country’s most prominent black cultural figures also expressed anger over the shootings. “We are sick and tired of the killings of young men and women in our communities,” the singer Beyoncé said in a statement on her website. “It is up to us to take a stand and demand that they ‘stop killing us’.” An extensive list of names of people killed by US police was projected as a backdrop to Beyoncé’s concert in Glasgow, Scotland, on Thursday evening.
Dayton, a Democrat, asked the US Department of Justice to investigate Castile’s shooting after protesters gathered outside his mansion overnight and wrapped his gates in crime-scene tape. The department is already reviewing the death of Sterling in Baton Rouge.
A Department of Justice spokesman said in an email that the department “stands ready to provide assistance” to Minnesota authorities in investigating the shooting if required “and will independently assess what further action may be warranted”. Officials said on Wednesday that they would open a federal civil rights investigation into Sterling’s death in Louisiana. That the shootings were a cause for concern. Asked in a congressional hearing whether killings such as those of Castile and Sterling were “happening at an alarming rate”, Comey replied: “‘Yes’ is the emphatic answer.” Comey had previously stood out within theObama administration by focusing on concerns that protests against police shootings may be causing a rise in crime by prompting officers to hold back from confrontations. Castile and his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, were pulled over at about 9pm on Wednesday because their car had a broken tail light, according to Reynolds. Quickly starting to film and broadcast to Facebook’s live video feature, Reynolds said to the camera that the officer had just opened fire as Castile reached into his pocket.
“He was trying to get out his ID and his wallet out his pocket and he let the officer know that he was that he had a firearm,” she says in the video. “He was reaching for his wallet and the officer just shot him in his arm.” Reynolds estimated that the officer fired between three and five times. Castile is seen slumped across a front seat covered in blood. He squirms with his eyes half-open. Reynolds says to camera: “Please don’t tell me that he’s gone. Please officer, don’t tell me that you just did this to him.” As other officers arrive, Reynolds is instructed to leave the vehicle. The phone continues to film as it is laid on the ground. One distraught-sounding officer, who has not been identified, can be heard shouting “Fuck” repeatedly. After Reynolds is detained, her four-year-old daughter can be heard comforting her. “It’s OK mommy,” she says The deaths of Sterling and Castile have revived protests about the treatment by officers of black people who appear to be carrying firearms legally or non-threateningly, as millions of Americans do every day without incident.
Castile’s mother said her son was “trying to do the right things, and live accordingly by the law”. Minnesotans are entitled to carry a handgun if they obtain a permit from their local sheriff after earning a training certificate. Reynolds said Castile was licensed to carry his gun. The officer who shot Castile works for the small St Anthony police department, whose chief John Ohl said in his 2015 annual report that outsiders “can easily overlook just how difficult it can be to deal humanely, as cops must, even with the dregs of our society”. The report suggested St Anthony’s 23 officers each received an average of 67 hours of training last year, including on de-escalation, the use of force and firearms. In the Baton Rouge case, police confronted Sterling because he matched the description of a man reported to have threatened someone with a gun. Two video clips of his struggle with police indicate, however, that his pistol remained in his pocket and was removed by officers after he was shot. It was unclear from the footage whether Sterling tried to reach for the weapon.
On Thursday, it was announced that lawyers representing the family of Walter Scott, the 50-year-old African American killed by police in South Carolina in 2015, would now represent members of Sterling’s family as well. “We will demand transparency from the Baton Rouge police department and all other agencies involved in this investigation. We will not stop until every question has been answered,” said attorneys L. Chris Stewart and Justin Bamberg in a statement. Scott’s death, which was also captured on video by a witness, resulted in a $6.5m settlement, and murder charges for the white officer who opened fire. The cases joined a series of flashpoints in recent years including those of Tamir Rice and John Crawford, two young African Americans who were separately shot dead by police in Ohio in 2014 while handling pellet guns in a park and a Walmart store respectively. In both cases, officers fired within seconds of seeing them. Campaigners said African Americans were treated unfairly to deadly effect. “No matter how well you follow the rules, you can still be dead because you’re black,” said Brittany Packnett, an activist and former member of Obama’s White House policing taskforce. “Compliance has never guaranteed our safety.” Gun rights advocates who are typically forthright in defending firearms owners have been criticised for failing to speak out in support of black people targeted while armed. Asked about the Castile shooting, Jennifer Baker, the National Rifle Association’s director of public affairs, said only on Thursday: “We have not issued a statement.” Larry Pratt, the executive director emeritus of Gun Owners of America, bristled at the suggestion that race made a difference. “We don’t speak out for black American nor white America or any other kinds of racial position. That is an obnoxious question. Keep asking questions like that and you’re going to get hung up on, like right now,” he said, then disconnected the line. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/07/philando-castile-police-shooting-calls-justice-department-inquiry-fbi-minnesota-officers