The aftermath of an officer-involved shooting has gone viral, after the events were live-streamed by the victim's girlfriend on Facebook. That video has since been taken off the social media network, but has reappeared online from other sources, including Youtube. (Warning: video is quite graphic in nature)
At a 3:00 a.m. ET press conference, police officials announced that the officer involved in the shooting has been placed on paid leave, but refused to take any questions from reporters.
BREAKING: St. Anthony PD announces man's death in officer involved shooting, cop on paid leave, no questions @WKBW pic.twitter.com/x0BZX57ydb
— Ed Drantch (@EdDrantch) July 7, 2016
The video, posted Wednesday night on Facebook Live, appeared to show an incident like the one police described. The video showed a woman sitting in a car with a man whose shirt appeared to be soaked in blood, saying an officer shot her boyfriend.
The victim was identified as Philando Castile. The hashtag #PhilandoCastile was trending on both facebook and twitter overnight.
St. Anthony Police interim police chief Jon Mangseth told reporters at a news conference that the incident began when an officer from his agency initiated a traffic stop around 9 p.m. Wednesday in Falcon Heights, a St. Paul suburb.
Mangseth says he didn't have "much information" about what led to the shooting. In the video, the woman claims they were pulled over for a broken tail light.
The police chief says the woman and child weren't hurt.
