Thousands turn out to protest Castile shooting verdict in Minnesota

Minnesota protest over the Philando Castile case verdict — (Image credit: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

An estimated 2,000 people turned out Friday night in St. Paul, Minnesota, to protest the "not guilty" verdict in the shooting death of black motorist Philando Castile by police officer Jeronimo Yanez during a traffic stop last year.

Carrying signs reading "When will black lives matter?" and "Shame," marchers assembled outside the state capitol and walked along major thoroughfares. "I'm mad as hell right now. Yes, I am," said Castile's mother, Valerie. "The system continues to fail black people."

"I'm incredibly disappointed with the jury's verdict," said a statement from Diamond Reynolds, Castile's girlfriend, who was in the car with her young daughter during the shooting. "It is a sad state of affairs when this type of criminal conduct is condoned simply because Yanez is a policeman."

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Police arrested 18 people at the protest, reportedly including at least two journalists. Bonnie Kristian

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.