An attorney for a suburban Minneapolis police officer
who killed a black motorist says the officer reacted to the man’s gun,
not his race.
Minneapolis attorney Thomas Kelly told The
Associated Press on Saturday that St. Anthony Police Officer Jeronimo
Yanez was reacting to “the presence of that gun and the display of that
gun” when he opened fire on Philando Castile.
Castile’s girlfriend, who streamed the shooting’s aftermath live on Facebook, says Castile was permitted to carry the gun.
Kelly
says Yanez, who is Latino, is distraught and saddened over the
Wednesday shooting in the Minneapolis suburb of Falcon Heights.
Authorities
say that during the traffic stop, Yanez approached Castile’s car from
the driver’s side and another officer approached from the passenger
side. Yanez opened fire, striking Castile multiple times.
Kelly wouldn’t elaborate on what led up to the shooting, citing a pending investigation.