Minnesota officer charged with manslaughter in Castile death

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota police officer has been charged with second-degree manslaughter in the killing of a black man in a St. Paul suburb, prosecutors announced Wednesday.

St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez fatally shot Philando Castile, 32, during a July 6 traffic stop in Falcon Heights. The shooting’s gruesome aftermath was streamed live on Facebook by Castile’s girlfriend, who was with him in the car along with her young daughter. The woman said Castile was shot several times while reaching for his ID after telling Yanez he had a gun permit and was armed.

Yanez’s attorney, Tom Kelly, has said Yanez, who is Latino, was reacting to the presence of a gun, and that one reason Yanez pulled Castile over was because he thought he looked like a possible match for an armed robbery suspect.

But family members claimed Castile, an elementary school cafeteria worker, was racially profiled.

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi got the case from investigators in late September and began reviewing the evidence for possible charges. Choi resisted pressure immediately after the shooting to turn the case over to a special prosecutor, but added one to his team to get an outside perspective. He also enlisted the help of national use-of-force consultants.

Choi’s office has said a key question in his review was determining whether Yanez was justified in believing deadly force was necessary.

In Minnesota, second-degree manslaughter, or involuntary manslaughter, carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.