Days after Jeronimo Yanez was acquitted in the killing of Philando Castile, authorities released thousands of pages of investigative reports and dramatic dashcam footage showing how a routine traffic stop turned deadly in seconds.
It was the first view outside the courtroom of the footage of St. Anthony police officer Yanez firing seven shots into Castile’s car last year, killing him as viewers watched the aftermath on Facebook Live. The July 6 shooting thrust Minnesota into the national debate over police use of force and racial profiling.
Documents released Tuesday also revealed that Yanez couldn’t provide investigators with a detailed description of the driver of the car he pursued, thinking he resembled a suspect in a recent robbery.
Yanez spoke to investigators from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) the day after the shooting, explaining that he pulled Castile over because of a nonworking brake light and in order to check whether he was one of two men from an armed robbery four days earlier.
