Family and activists remember Philando Castile five years after his death Young people, family and supporters gather at governor s residence. July 6, 2021 8:26pm Text size Copy shortlink:
Holding a bullhorn, 17-year-old Semhar Solomon led a protest down Summit Avenue in St. Paul outside of the governor s residence to commemorate the five-year anniversary of the death of Philando Castile.
For the past five years, the St. Anthony teen has advocated for Castile, who was killed by a police officer from her town. Since she was 12, Solomon has watched the Black Lives Matter movement explode in the Twin Cities and the state from the killing of Castile in 2016 to the murder of George Floyd and the conviction of Derek Chauvin.
Jeronimo Yanez, who is Latino, on July 6, 2016, following a routine traffic stop.
(Courtesy of Castile Family)
Squad cam footage showed Yanez pulling over Castile’s car in Falcon Heights, Minn. Reports indicated that the initial stop was because another police officer radioed to Yanez and his partner that he believed the couple to be implicated in a robbery in the area and specified Castile due to his ‘wide-set nose.’
His girlfriend,
Yanez asked Castile for his identification and registration, which triggered a fatal sequence of events.
“Sir, I have to tell you, I do have a firearm on me,” Castile, who was licensed to carry in Minnesota, an open-carry state told Yanez.