A lawyer for a suburban Minnesota police officer who killed a black driver says his client pulled the man over in part because he believed he resembled a suspect in a robbery.So the cop thought he was pulling over a bad guy. When it transpired that the guy had a gun, the cop, who still thought that he was dealing with a bad guy, shot him. Even though the guy wasn't reaching for it.
Philando Castile had no felony record and authorities have not said he was a suspect in any crime.
But attorney Thomas Kelly tells the Star Tribune newspaper that Officer Jeronimo Yanez thought the 32-year-old Castile looked like someone police had been seeking in a recent robbery.
In short, it was a bad shoot. I don't know how they're going to get out of not bringing manslaughter charges against him.
Men have been killed by police because the cops thought that cell phones or wallets were guns.
Seeing what you expect to see and not being open to questioning your assumptions is a hard thing to do. This one cost one man his life, may effectively cost another man his and may cost the people of that municipality many millions of dollars in damages.
(No, I'm not throwing rocks.)
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