'Don't cry, baby': Video reveals Castile girlfriend's agony after shooting
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Diamond Reynolds sits in the back of a squad car distraught, handcuffed and unable to hold her 4-year-old daughter as she waits to hear whether her boyfriend, Philando Castile, survived after being shot five times by St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez.
"We're not hurt, but mentally I'm scarred forever," Reynolds tells a police officer who asks if she was injured during the traffic stop in Falcon Heights. She asks the officer to remove the cuffs so she can hug her daughter. The officer responds, "My supervisor is going to be with you, OK, ma'am."
She tells her daughter, "Don't cry, baby." The girl says, "It's OK, mommy. I'm right here with you."
The heartrending in-squad video, which captures Reynolds and her daughter in the minutes after they witnessed Yanez shoot Castile, was released as part of the massive case file authorities collected following the shooting. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension released the case file four days after a Ramsey County jury acquitted Yanez of second-degree manslaughter and two felony counts of a dangerous discharge of a firearm.
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The investigation file contains evidence shown at trial, as well as other pieces of evidence not introduced at trial. The in-squad camera video of Reynolds and her daughter waiting to be transported to the Roseville Police Department for questioning, was not shown at trial.
This in-squad video is intense footage of a traumatic situation that the 4-year-old girl endured. MPR News has decided not to post the video because of its sensitive nature and the child's involvement.
In the video, Reynolds rides a roller coaster of emotions. She's patient one minute and yells and curses the next. She cries, making her daughter cry. She tells the officers she feels like a prisoner. She tells them she's about to vomit.
"Mom please stop cussing and swearing because I don't want you to get shooted," her daughter tells her.
"OK, give me a kiss," Reynolds responds.
"I can keep you safe," the girl says.
"It's OK, I got it, OK," Reynolds says.
The girl moves closer and hugs Reynolds. She's still crying.
"I'm too scared," she says stressing to her mom not to try to take the handcuffs off so she doesn't get shot. "I don't want it to be like this anymore."
"Tell that to the police, OK?" Reynolds tells her. "When they come, OK, tell them you wish that they didn't have to kill people."
"God please get us out of this city," the little girl prays.
"Just keep praying, OK baby," Reynolds says.
An officer comes later to take the handcuffs off. The girl climbs up in Reynolds' arms. They pray for Castile.
A police officer tells her she's not under arrest and that she needs to go to the police department to give a statement.
Reynolds asks to see Castile at the hospital. But they don't allow her to do that. They tell her she can't talk to anyone else until she tells investigators what she saw.