Hundreds Gather at Protest after Minnesota Officer Acquitted in Philando Castile's Death

(David Joles/Star Tribune via AP, File).

Jurors received the case Monday afternoon after attorneys for the prosecution and defense finished their closing arguments.

John Choi, the Ramsey County prosecutor assigned to the case, told reporters following the verdict that Castile "did nothing that justified the taking of his life". Castile's girlfriend, sitting beside him as Yanez fired seven shots, said she recorded video of the scene because she feared that she and her 4-year-old daughter, in the car's rear seat, were in danger. And, today, the jury reached a verdict in the trial of the officer.

"The public will be best served if Officer Yanez is no longer a police officer in our city", a statement on the city's website said.

A Minnesota city says it will dismiss a police officer even though he was cleared of all charges in the fatal shooting of a black motorist.

SCHAPER: No, actually, just in the last hour or two, the city of Saint Anthony has released a statement saying that Officer Yanez will not return to active duty on the police force there. They spent a lot of time dissecting the "culpable negligence" requirement for conviction, and the last two holdouts eventually agreed Friday on acquittal. I struggled with it. "Oh my God, I'm going to throw up", she said.

The not-guilty verdict, returned after an initial deadlocked jury and after more than 25 hours of deliberation, proves that even a liberal enclave like the one Castile worked in and lived in, that having a licensed gun, like the one Castile had, that having a 4-year-old girl in the back of the vehicle he was operating, can not bring worth to a black man's life in the eyes of a cruelly racist justice system. The rest of the jurors are white. He was near tears as he talked about the fear he felt, the tension he felt, the thoughts of his family running through his mind as he encountered Philando Castile for those first few seconds of this incident.

"In the stream", as The Two-Way reported, "she said Castile was stopped for a broken taillight, had notified the officer that he was licensed to carry a handgun and was reaching for his wallet at the officer's request when he was shot".

Castile had a permit for the weapon. The defense also argued Castile was high on marijuana and said that affected his actions. They raised questions about discrepancies in Reynolds' statements to investigators, including where Castile carried his wallet and who purchased the marijuana that was in the vehicle.

June 16: Yanez acquitted of manslaughter and lesser charges.

Choi says Yanez "made a disgusting mistake from our perspective". "I know if he could, he would take back what he did", he said.

"My son loved this state", Valerie said. The victim's mother, Valerie Castile, reportedly left the courtroom upon hearing the verdict.

"He got caught in three, four, five different lies", said Allysza Castille, Philando's sister. "I will never have faith in the system".

SHAPIRO: Has Officer Yanez had any reaction to the verdict? In Minnesota, defense attorneys and prosecutors can each strike one assigned judge from a case without giving a reason.

"We were confident in our client". "He made a disgusting mistake", Choi said after the verdict, referring to the officer. Dayton, a Democrat, drew criticism in the days after the shooting for suggesting that Castile might not have been shot if he was white.

Video footage recorded by Reynolds only seconds after the shooting showed Castile dying in the auto and Yanez standing outside the driver's side of the vehicle, continuing to yell while pointing his gun inside the auto. Castile appears to give something to Yanez through the driver's side window. Kelly says Yanez thought Castile looked like "a possible match" for a suspect in a recent armed robbery.

"Seventy-four seconds after Yanez activated his squad lights, he fired the last of seven shots into the vehicle", Minnesota Public Radio's Matt Sepic reported.

Yanez proceeded to tell him not to reach for it, to which Castile replied that he wasn't. "My family's faces popped up in my mind, my wife and baby girl", Yanez said, his voice choked with emotion.