A Minnesota police officer fatally shot Philando Castile during a traffic stop Wednesday and the man’s girlfriend calmly livestreamed the bloody aftermath on Facebook Live.
Lavish Reynolds and a child were in the vehicle during the traffic stop in a St. Paul suburb when the 32-year-old black man was shot. Reynolds captured the gruesome aftermath as her boyfriend lay in the passenger seat critically wounded.
In the video, Reynolds explains why the couple was pulled over for the traffic stop while a blood-soaked Castile is seen slumped in a seat. An officer is also seen through the passenger side window with his weapon drawn.
“Stay with me. We got pulled over for a busted tail light in the back,” Reynolds said. “And the police is just, he’s covered, he killed my boyfriend.”
Castile is heard groaning in the background as his girlfriend continues to stream.
“He’s licenced to carry, he was trying to get out his ID in his wallet out of his pocket, and he let the officer know that he was … that he had a firearm and that he was reaching for his wallet. And the officer just shot him in his arm,” Reynolds said.
WATCH BELOW: Lavish Reynolds captured the moments after police allegedly shot her boyfriend during a traffic stop (WARNING: Video contains disturbing images and may not be suitable for all viewers)
The officer shouts at the woman demanding her to keep her hands where they were.
“I will sir, no worries, I will,” Reynolds calmly said. “He just shot his arm off.”
“I told him not to reach for it! I told him to get his head up!” the officer yells.
“He had, you told him to get his ID, sir, his driver’s license. Oh my God, please don’t tell me he’s dead. Please don’t tell me my boyfriend just went like that,” Reynolds said.
The officer again tells the woman to keep her hands where they were as she continues to broadcast the incident.
“Please officer, please don’t tell me that you just did this to him. You shot four bullets into him, sir. He was just getting his license and registration, sir,” Reynolds said.
A second officer arrives on scene and orders the woman to get out of the vehicle.
“Where’s my daughter? You got my daughter?” Reynolds asks.
The officer explained to the woman that she was just being detained “while we get this sorted out.”
Later in the video, Reynolds is seen in the back of a police car where she continues to explain her boyfriend was “shot for no apparent reason” as she pleads for family to call her.
As word of the shooting and video spread, relatives of Castile joined scores of people who gathered at the scene of the shooting and outside the hospital where Castile died of his injuries.
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Late Wednesday, protesters moved to the governor’s mansion in St. Paul, where around 200 people chanted and demanded action from Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton. By daybreak Thursday, around 50 protesters remained outside the mansion despite a light rain.
This isn’t the first time the aftermath of a shooting was broadcast on the popular Facebook app.
In February, a panicked teen was shot multiple times at a Burger King drive-thru in Florida and she said she kept herself from going into shock by live streaming her reactions onto Facebook just moments after the shooting.
Facebook rolled out its live streaming service in January.
Correction: An earlier version of this post stated the officer was white. His identity is not yet known.
–with a file from The Associated Press
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