By Harry Colbert, Jr., Managing Editor<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In what many see as a first step towards justice in the killing of motorist Philando Castile, St. Anthony Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez has been charged with second degree manslaughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The announcement came last Wednesday (Nov. 16) as Ramsey County Prosecuting Attorney John Choi laid out the set of facts that led him to file charges against Yanez in the highly-publicized July 6 shooting death of Castile, who was driving in Falcon Heights when he was pulled over by Yanez for a supposed broken taillight. What ensued was Yanez shooting Castile seven times while Castile\u2019s girlfriend Diamond Reynolds and her 4-year-old daughter were in the car. Immediately following Castile being shot Reynolds livestreamed the now-viral video on Facebook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Castile, who was still in his seatbelt, was legally armed with a handgun and informed Yanez of this before he was shot. Yanez claimed Castile reached for his weapon but in Choi\u2019s announcement of charges he said Castile never reached for a weapon and his hands were visible to Yanez during the entire interaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPhilando Castile announced calmly to Officer Yanez that he had a gun and Yanez, said \u2018OK, don\u2019t reach for it,\u2019 then, Castile responded \u2018I\u2019m not reaching for it\u2019 before being again interrupted by Yanez, who said, \u2018Don\u2019t pull it out.\u2019 Castile responded \u2018I\u2019m not pulling it out,\u2019 and Reynolds also said, \u2018He\u2019s not pulling it out.\u2019 Yanez screamed, \u2018Don\u2019t pull it out\u2019 and quickly pulled his own gun then fired seven shots in the direction of Castile in rapid succession,\u201d said Choi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Choi, Castile\u2019s last words after being shot were \u201cI wasn\u2019t reaching for it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBased on the evidence, Castile never reached or tried to remove his gun,\u201d said Choi, who said the magazine of Castile\u2019s gun was loaded but there was no round in the chamber. He also said at the time of his death Castile was carrying with him his permit to legally carry a firearm. \u201cNo reasonable officer would have used deadly force under these circumstances. I cannot let the death of a motorist legally carrying a firearm go unpunished.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Ramsey County prosecutor said the decision to charge Yanez with a crime was his and his alone to make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy conscious tells me it\u2019s wrong for me to ask a grand jury to make this decision when I know what in my heart is the right thing to do,\u201d said Choi. \u201cBased on review, it is my conclusion that use of force was not justified.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Choi also questioned the reason for the stop in the first place, citing Yanez\u2019 own words saying he pulled Castile over for his \u201cwide set nose,\u201d saying he fit the description of a robbery suspect. Many said that would have been virtually impossible for Yanez to see considering the stop occurred at 9:30 at night and Castile was traveling in a moving vehicle. Choi said Castile had no connection whatsoever to any robbery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to the second degree manslaughter charge Yanez, a four year veteran of the St. Anthony Police Department, was also charged with two felony counts of discharging a firearm that endangered the safety of others. Those charges stem from Reynolds and her daughter being in the car at the time of the shooting. The manslaughter charge comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years if convicted and the endangerment charges carry a five year sentence each. Choi said he decided to charge the lesser charge of manslaughter rather than second degree murder based on what he felt would be the most winnable case in front of a jury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just a day after the anniversary of the Jamar Clark killing by Minneapolis police \u2013 a case where the officers involved were not charged \u2013 Choi\u2019s decision to charge Yanez came as a shock to some.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt feels weird. In most cases officers don\u2019t get charged, so for (Choi) to actually validate us; it\u2019s huge, but it\u2019s strange,\u201d said newly elected Minneapolis NAACP president, Jason Sole, who had been a leading protester following both shootings and who was outside of Choi\u2019s office during the announcement. \u201cBut it was the right decision and what happened is the narrative was shattered that Philando Castile did something wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Harry Colbert, Jr., Managing Editor In what many see as a first step towards justice in the killing of motorist Philando Castile, St. Anthony Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez has been charged with second degree manslaughter. The announcement came last Wednesday (Nov. 16) as Ramsey County Prosecuting Attorney John Choi laid out the set of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4517,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[2709,2806,2703],"class_list":["post-4516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-jeronimo-yanez","tag-john-choi","tag-philando-castile","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Insight-News-Website-Images-14.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4516"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4518,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4516\/revisions\/4518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}