A police officer in the US state of Minnesota was charged Wednesday with manslaughter over the shooting of an African-American man during a traffic stop in July, according to dpa. The charges against Jeronimo Yanez were announced by Ramsey County Attorney John Choi, who concluded the use of deadly force against 32-year-old Philando Castile was not justified. The case was widely publicized because Castile's fiancee recorded the aftermath of the shooting using Facebook Live. The recording, which has been viewed millions of times, showed Castile bleeding profusely while Yanez, who is Hispanic, continued pointing his firearm at him. The shooting in a suburb of St Paul, Minnesota, touched off widespread outrage and protests in the United States. It was one of several high-profile police shootings in recent years that drew intense scrutiny. In most of those cases the victims were unarmed, but in the Minnesota case Castile was legally carrying a firearm and told the officer about it after he was pulled over. Choi noted that the video, along with the police dashcam, show that Castile did not resist or flee and exhibited no criminal intent. "He was respectful and compliant based on the instructions and the orders he was given," Choi said, and he "volunteered in good faith" that he was armed. "His dying words were in protest that he wasn't reaching for his gun," Choi said. "There simply was no objective threat posed to Officer Yanez, Officer Kauzer or anyone in that car." Yanez, 28, said he told Castile not to reach for his gun, but then feared for his life when Castile blocked the view of his right hand with his shoulder while reaching down, according to an account at the Minneapolis Star Tribune. If convicted, Yanez faces up to 10 years in prison and a 20,000-dollar fine, according to Minnesota law.
