2. I am only looking at the video to make my determination. Since you are saying "case" I assume you are talking about the entirety of the court case and proceedings and not just the video as I have done?
3. Based on the video we have there is no indication the driver does or does not have his hands in his pocket. So I assume you have other information which clearly states he had his hand in his pocket the entire time?
When I say "case", I'm talking about all of the facts on the table....including the video (both of them), along with the testimonies of both the Officer and Diamond Reynolds.
Follow me Danger......during his account of the events, the Officer makes the following statements:
- He said there was a robbery in the area and Castile looked similar to the description of the robber based solely on having a big nose and being black.
Nothing else.
- The Officer said he smelled weed in the car and it was later revealed that both Castile and Diamond had been smoking weed (Diamond said this during one of her testimonies). So Castile and Diamond were high, which would slow down anybody's reaction to things, making it almost impossible to fully react within 3 seconds of anything (
which is why they should not have been driving in the first place, they should have been arrested for driving under the influence).
- The Officer said during the moments he was telling Castile not to grab it/reach for it, Castile had his hand in or near his pocket with a grip that the Officer felt was "too large for a wallet". Based on that "grip size" and his hand being in or near his pocket, the Officer
assumed he was grabbing for the gun. But the Officer never seen the gun.
Danger, those are all statements the Officer made. Based on those statements and the dashcam video, the only logical and reasonable conclusion is that the Officer jumped the gun (no pun intended), believing Castile was a potential thug/criminal with a gun, about to use said gun, and he let off rounds in Castile before Castile could "let off rounds in him".
If the Officer had waited, maybe 10 more seconds.....we wouldn't be discussing this right now.
This case sends a very dangerous message to everybody in America. A Cop can shoot you within 3 seconds of not complying to a command, even if you are in the act of complying with it, but haven't completely finished the "comply".
For example, Danger if I already have my hands in my pocket and you say, "TENACITY, don't grab for it!" I would say, "I'm not grabbing for it (like Castile did)"....while I slowly pull my hand BACK out of my pocket.......but in the process of pulling my hand back out....you shoot me.
It was manslaughter Danger. The Cop fvcked up. It's why he was whining and bytching after he shot him, not only was he improperly trained, terrified of the person he was policing, but he knew damn well he jumped the gun (no pun intended).