TRIGGER WARNING: This post contains graphic violence.
In the immediate wake of the killing of Alton Sterling, the nation has been rocked by another tragic, graphic, and seemingly preventable act of police brutality.
Within 24 hours of witnessing Alton's death, a gruesome Facebook Live video went viral, showing 32-year-old Philando Castile, a black male from Minnesota, bleeding out in a car beside his girlfriend, Diamond "Lavish" Reynolds, and her 4-year-old daughter.
Lavish alleges that the incident began when the police officer, from the St. Anthony Police Department in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, pulled them over for a broken tail light, which she claims wasn't broken at all. She says that once the officer approached the car, Philando announced to the officer that he had a concealed carry permit and that he was armed. She goes on to state that after the officer asked Philando to produce his identification, her boyfriend was shot four times at close range as the officer panicked, possibly believing he was reaching for his gun instead of his wallet.
At this point, Lavish then activated Facebook's live-streaming feature to show the aftermath of the incident in real time. Despite the unimaginable tension and confusion that engulfed their car as Philando audibly moaned while bleeding to death, Lavish steadied the phone on her and her boyfriend while narrating the entire incident. At some point the officer, currently unidentified, appears pointing his gun at the dying Philando, screaming, "I told him not to reach for it."
As Philando wavers in and out of consciousness, Lavish is ordered to exit the vehicle and she is handcuffed and placed in the back of a police cruiser with her daughter. Before the video ends, her daughter attempts to console her by saying, “It’s OK, mama, it’s OK, I’m right here with you.”
Castile later died at Hennepin County Medical Center.
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Although the video was downloaded by some people after it was posted, Facebook removed the video once it began going viral. In a statement to TechCrunch, it attributed the deletion to a "technical glitch." The video is now back up with a content warning label preceding it.
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The incident is especially troubling because of its close proximity to the graphic killing of Alton Sterling. In 2014, after the death of Mike Brown, activist organizations like Black Lives Matter took to social media to inform the public about the systemic issues that enabled police brutality, while also detailing the troubling statistics about how it affected racialized communities. One of the most alarming and highly quoted stats was "every 28 hours," which supposedly refers to how often a black person is killed by a police officer, security guard, or vigilante. To see actual visual evidence of that within — what felt like — hours, is a sign to many that change truly must come to enact a fair and equal society.
Related: Celebrities React to Alton Sterling Shooting
