Black motorist Philando Castile, 32, a school cafeteria worker, was shot at close range by a Minnesota cop and seen bleeding to death in a graphic video shot by his girlfriend that went viral Thursday, the second fatal police shooting to rock America in as many days. / AFP PHOTO /
by Joy Powell
SAINT PAUL, United States (AFP) — For Ericka Cullars-Golden, one of hundreds of people protesting the fatal police shooting of a black man in Minnesota, the incident provoked a sadly familiar feeling of shock.
Cullars-Golden said she lost her son Marcus Golden at the hands of Saint Paul police last year — shot in the head.
“I am so traumatized,” she said of her son’s death.
Like Philando Castile, the man fatally shot on Wednesday, Golden was black.
“I wanted to come out today to show my support today because many of you have been supportive of my family,” Cullars-Golden said, joining a lineup of activist speakers at the protest.
Hundreds of emotional protesters rallied outside the Minnesota governor’s mansion, demanding justice for Castile, who was fatally shot by police during a traffic stop.
Some in the crowd were angry, while others wiped away tears. The protesters of all ages and backgrounds stood shoulder-to-shoulder, chanting their demands for justice.
“Stop executing black people,” read one sign. T-shirts bore slogans including “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot,” and the name of the national advocacy group, Black Lives Matter.
Outrage
Castile was the second black man in two days fatally shot by US police. They are the latest in a string of similar cases that have fueled outrage across the United States, from city streets to the White House.
On Thursday, protests were multiplying. Demonstrators took to the streets in New York, Washington, Dallas, Los Angeles and other cities.
Amplifying the horror for many was the video that was live-streamed in the shooting’s aftermath by the slain man’s girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, as she sat in the passenger seat. In the backseat was her 4-year-old daughter, Dae’Anna.
Castile, 32, had been pulled over Wednesday in Falcon Heights, near Minneapolis, for a broken tail light.
He was shot after informing the officer that he had a gun and a permit to carry, and then reaching for his wallet, according to Reynolds.
In the southern state of Louisiana on Tuesday, 37-year-old father of five Alton Sterling was pinned to the ground by police outside a convenience store and shot several times at point blank range.
‘Do better’
Jess Banks, 41, held a sign reading, “Philando Castile fed my sons lunch. Cops fed him four bullets. Black Lives Matter.”
Banks said Castile had worked in the cafeteria at her sons’ elementary school.
She said she did not know how to break the news of the death to her boys.
The video deeply troubled her, Banks said, and she helped others turn off the autoplay function on Facebook so they wouldn’t have to be exposed to the graphic content.
Hannah Lieberman, 32, said she could not bear to watch it.
Her bottom lip trembled and tears welled as she expressed empathy for Reynolds’s young daughter, who could be heard on the video comforting her mother.
Reynolds was kept from her daughter for hours after the shooting, which bothered Lieberman.
“I’m concerned that that child’s trauma is going to be preserved forever, and that made me refrain from sharing the video widely on social media,” Lieberman said.
“I’m here because I think as Minnesotans, we can do better,” said Lieberman.
Will the protesters get the justice they demand?
In the case of Cullars-Golden’s son, a grand jury declined to indict the two police officers who shot him as he drove his car toward one of them.
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