On the night of July 6, 2016, Philando Divall Castile, 32, male, African American, was driving through Falcon Heights in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area with his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, and her young daughter when a St. Anthony police officer, Jeronimo Yanez, pulled the car over. The stop happened near the intersection of Larpenteur Avenue and Fry Street, a quiet stretch of road that turned, within moments, into a scene that would be replayed across the country and argued over for
years. 
Inside the car, Castile calmly told the officer he had a firearm and that he was licensed to carry it. The exchange tightened instantly—warnings not to reach, attempts to explain, overlapping commands—until the officer fired seven shots at close range, striking Castile multiple times. Reynolds, still in the passenger seat beside him, began broadcasting the aftermath on Facebook from the car, her voice shaking as she showed Castile bleeding and struggling to survive while her daughter remained in the back seat. Castile was rushed to Hennepin County Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead later that night. 
For months, the case unfolded under intense public pressure, with demonstrations and vigils spreading far beyond Minnesota. Investigators and prosecutors weighed what the officer said he perceived against what the video and evidence suggested. In November 2016, Yanez was charged—an arrest and prosecution that were unusual in police shootings—with second-degree manslaughter and two counts of dangerous discharge of a firearm. The filings framed the shooting as a catastrophic overreaction in a moment that should have been controlled, while the defense maintained the officer feared Castile was reaching for the gun. 
The trial in 2017 became a meticulous reconstruction of seconds: the traffic stop, the officer’s commands, Castile’s attempt to comply, and the gun that remained in the car. After deliberations that lasted days, the jury acquitted Yanez on all charges on June 16, 2017, leaving the family and many supporters stunned and furious, and reinforcing for others the high legal bar required to convict an officer who claims perceived threat. Not long after the verdict, Yanez was fired from the St. Anthony Police Department. 
