USA Police continue the killing of blacks – see live video

The final moments of a black man shot by US police after being pulled over while driving have been captured in a video viewed by millions of people, as hundreds of protesters stood vigil after a similar incident in Louisiana. SEE VIDEO BELOW

Philando Castile’s girlfriend live streamed the bloody aftermath in the Minnesota town of Falcon Heights, just outside Minneapolis, as Protests were held over the death of another black man in Louisiana.

Philando Castile was shot while sitting in driver’s seat of car. Castile’s girlfriend says he was stopped for having a broken taillight.

The latest video of a controversial police killing followed on the heels of another piece of footage in which an officer in Louisiana shot dead at point-blank range a father of five early on Tuesday.

In both cases, the victims had a gun with them, though there is no indication they pointed their weapon at police at any time during the incidents.

Hundreds of protesters stood vigil early on Thursday outside the convenience store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where Alton Sterling, 37, was shot by an officer while already pinned to the ground.

A mural of Sterling was painted on the side of the Triple S Mart store as protesters demanded the prosecution of police involved in the fatal shooting of Mr Sterling.

In the latest 10-minute video, Ms Reynolds says her boyfriend, a school cafeteria worker, was pulled over for a broken taillight.

Ms Reynolds, who was sitting beside him with her young daughter in the back seat, later said there was also marijuana in the car.

Mr Castile had a legal licence to carry a firearm and was reaching for his licence and vehicle registration when police shot him, she added.

“F***,” a distraught man is heard screaming in the video. “I told him not to reach for it.”

At the end of the video, as Ms Reynolds sits in the back of a police car, her daughter can be heard telling her: “It’s okay mommy. It’s okay, I’m right here with you”.

A statement from the St Anthony Police Department said an unidentified black man was wounded during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights at 9:00pm local time. He was taken to a hospital, where he later died.

Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton, speaking at a news conference along with Ms Reynolds, said a state investigation was underway.

“This kind of behaviour is unacceptable,” Mr Dayton said.

Ms Reynolds repeated what she asserted in the shock footage, that her boyfriend did nothing to provoke the shooting.

“Nothing within his body language said intimidation. Nothing within his body said ‘shoot me’. Nothing within his language said ‘kill me I want to be dead’,” she said, her voice trembling with grief and anger.

Ms Reynolds said the officer, whom she described as an Asian male, made conflicting demands of Mr Castile — both that he keep his hands in the air and that he identify himself.

“As he’s reaching for his back-pocket wallet, he lets the officer know, ‘officer, I have a firearm on me’. I begin to yell, ‘but he’s licensed to carry’,” she said.

“After that, he begins to take off shots. ‘Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Don’t move! Don’t move!’

“Not one shot. Not two shots. Not three shots. Not four shots. But five shots.”Ms Reynolds said she decided to live stream the event — even as an officer pointed his gun through the car window — to forestall any attempt by police to deny what happened.

“I didn’t do it for pity. I didn’t do it for fame. I did so that the world knows that these police are not here to protect us,” she said.

President Barack Obama warned the shootings were evidence of a “serious problem” in US society.

Mr Obama said it was clear the shootings were not “isolated incidents”.

“All Americans should be deeply troubled by the fatal shootings of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota,” he said in a statement on Facebook.

“They are symptomatic of the broader challenges within our criminal justice system, the racial disparities that appear across the system year after year, and the resulting lack of trust that exists between law enforcement and too many of the communities they serve.”

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