A black motorist was shot at close range by a Minnesota cop and seen bleeding to death in a graphic video shot by his girlfriend that went viral Thursday, the second fatal police shooting to rock America in as many days.
As calls mounted for justice for the 32-year-old victim Philando Castile, President Barack Obama warned the shootings were evidence of a "serious problem" in US society, and urged Americans to unite to mend the fault lines between police and the population.
Castile's girlfriend Diamond Reynolds livestreamed the aftermath of Wednesday night's shooting with an officer pointing his gun at her through the window, while her four-year-old daughter sat in the back of the car.The governor of the northern US state asked the White House to order a federal probe into the shooting, which took place in a suburb of St. Paul where hundreds of protesters rallied on Thursday around the victim's shocked relatives.
Speaking to reporters outside the governor's mansion, after a night in police custody, Reynolds repeated what she said in the gruesome footage: that Castile was shot "for no reason."
Pulled over for a broken tail light, Castile duly informed the officer that he was in possession of a licensed gun, she said -- and was shot as he reached for his wallet to retrieve his identification.
Reynolds said that Castile, a school cafeteria worker described by relatives as a quiet, law-abiding citizen, had made no threat.She said the officer, whom she described as an Asian male, made conflicting demands -- telling Castile both to keep his hands in the air and identify himself.
"Nothing within his body language said intimidation. Nothing within his body said 'Shoot me.' Nothing within his language said 'Kill me I want to be dead," she said, her voice trembling with grief and anger.
- 'Assassinate us' -
Reynolds said she livestreamed the event to forestall any attempt by police to deny what happened.
"I didn't do it for pity. I didn't do it for fame. I did so that the world knows that these police are not here to protect us," she said.
"They're here to assassinate us, they're here to kill us because we are black."
Reynolds said her phone had been seized as evidence and voiced fear of a police cover-up.
"They're gonna tamper with evidence," she told reporters. "They're gonna do whatever they have to do to cover their butts."
But Governor Mark Dayton pledged to push for a full and independent inquiry by the Department of Justice.
"Justice will be served in Minnesota," Dayton said.A federal civil rights probe has already been opened into the police shooting of a black man on Tuesday in Louisiana. Father of five Alton Sterling, 37, was pinned to the ground and shot at point blank range in Baton Rouge, in an incident also caught on video.
Obama, the first black US president, said it was clear the shootings were not "isolated incidents."
"All Americans should be deeply troubled by the fatal shootings of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota," he said in a statement on Facebook.
"They are symptomatic of the broader challenges within our criminal justice system, the racial disparities that appear across the system year after year, and the resulting lack of trust that exists between law enforcement and too many of the communities they serve."America's debate on police use of lethal force, especially against young black men, was further fuelled Thursday as a fourth officer went on trial in Baltimore in one of the highest-profile such cases of recent years.
Three officers so far have escaped conviction in the case of Freddie Gray, a young black man who died last year after suffering spinal injuries in the back of a police van.
- 'It's OK mommy' -
In a 10-minute video viewed more than three million times after it was streamed live on Facebook, Reynolds -- clearly in shock -- methodically narrates the shooting incident as an officer trains his weapon on her.In the background, an officer is heard shouting: "I told him not to reach for it. I told him to get his hands up."
Castile can be seen in the driver's seat, blood stains spreading through his white shirt. Reynolds starts wailing as it becomes clear he is dying. AFP
Belum ada tanggapan untuk "Shock video shows black motorist shot dead by US police"
Post a Comment