Dashcam video shows officer firing 7 shots into Castile car

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Minnesota police officer who pulled over Philando Castile politely told the driver his brake lights were out and calmly instructed him not to pull out his handgun before suddenly drawing his own weapon and firing seven rounds into the car, a video released Tuesday showed.

The dashboard video taken from officer Jeronimo Yanez's squad car illustrated how a simple traffic stop shifted in an instant from a routine exchange to a deadly confrontation.

When Yanez opened fire, another officer near the car jumped back, and Yanez began yelling at the driver. As more police and an ambulance arrived, Yanez could be heard breathing heavily and swearing and trying to explain his actions to fellow officers.

The video was made public days after the officer was acquitted on all counts in the case. Although the squad-car footage was described repeatedly and was shown to jurors in the courtroom, it never had been made public until Tuesday.

The shooting gained widespread attention because Castile's girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, livestreamed its aftermath on Facebook. Unlike Reynolds' video, the squad-car video shows the situation's escalation and the shooting itself.

Yanez, who was found not guilty of manslaughter and other charges, began firing only seconds after Castile told the officer he had a gun.

"Sir, I have to tell you, I do have a firearm on me," Castile said.

Before Castile finished that sentence, Yanez began pulling his weapon out of the holster. Yanez said, "OK. Don't reach for it, then." There is shouting, and Yanez screamed "Don't pull it out!" before firing into the car.

Castile, a 32-year-old elementary-school cafeteria worker, had a permit to carry the weapon.

The release of the video made some people angrier about the death.

Steven Belton, the black president and CEO of the Minneapolis Urban League, said the footage was "powerfully painful," and Castile was "gunned down like a rabid animal."

Bekuh Sibet, a 29-year-old waitress from nearby Richfield, said it was obvious to her from the video Castile was complying.

"I feel like it's 10 times worse now," said Sibet, who is white.

Craig Hutchinson, a white employment recruiter from the Minneapolis suburb of Plymouth, said in a tweet he was surprised at how quickly the situation intensified.

Hutchinson, who said he has a concealed-carry permit, also said the video left room for reasonable doubt, because it doesn't show where the gun was. He also said Yanez could have acted differently.

"If the officer would've exercised more caution, it may not have escalated as fast," he said.

Marcell Lenoir, a 24-year-old insurance worker from suburban Brooklyn Center, referred back to testimony the officer thought Castile resembled a suspected armed robber.

"He already thought in his mind that this was a suspect in a robbery, and he just panicked and he messed up," said Lenoir, who is mixed race, African-American and white.

After the shooting, footage shows officers pulling Castile from the vehicle and begin CPR. Yanez is then off-camera, but can be heard talking through his body microphone.

Yanez, 29, is heard telling a supervisor that he didn't know where Castile's gun was, then saying he told Castile to get his hand off it. Yanez testified, "What I meant by that was I didn't know where the gun was up until I saw it in his right thigh area."

Yanez's acquittal prompted days of protests, including one in St. Paul last Friday that attracted thousands and shut down Interstate 94 for hours.

Eighteen people were arrested.