Minnesota officer who killed Philando Castile charged with manslaughter

Police officer Jeronimo Yanez will face charged.

(Image credit: iStockphoto)

published 16 November 2016

The Ramsey County Attorney's Office in St. Paul, Minnesota, announced Wednesday that police officer Jeronimo Yanez would face charges over the shooting death of 32-year-old Philando Castile. Yanez shot and killed Castile, an unarmed black man, in Falcon Heights on July 6, after stopping Castile and his girlfriend Diamond Reynolds for a broken tail light. He will face one count of second-degree manslaughter and two felony counts of dangerous discharge of a firearm.

Ramsey County Attorney General John Choi said in a press conference Wednesday that Castile was not to blame for his own death. "No other police officer in a similar situation would have used deadly force," Choi said, as reported by Fox affiliate KSMP. Reynolds, who live-streamed the aftermath of Yanez's shooting of Castile on Facebook, said in the video that Castile had informed Yanez that he was carrying a firearm, for which he had a permit.