Photos: Remembering Philando Castile, one year later
One year ago Thursday, Philando Castile was shot and killed by St. Anthony police officer Jeroniomo Yanez during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights, Minn.
Castile's family and friends held two events in his honor to mark the day.
At a pavilion in St. Paul's Como Park Thursday afternoon, a DJ played hip-hop, kids jumped around in a bouncy castle and hot dogs sizzled on a set of big grills.
Diamond Reynolds, Castile's girlfriend, was the organizer behind the Como Park event, which she called a "Black Love" remembrance. She said she didn't want it to be sad or angry, because that's not the type of man Castile was.
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"I just wanted to let this event be a remembrance of life, a celebration of life, and a celebration of lives we lost," she said.
A few miles away, Castile's mother, Valerie, and his sister, Allysza, held their own celebration of his life, a picnic at the Gibbs Farm in Falcon Heights that they called "a day of love, life, healing, food, and music." It ended with a public candlelight vigil near the Falcon Heights intersection of Larpenteur Avenue and Fry Street, where Castile was killed.
Castile's girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, streamed the aftermath on her phone from the passenger seat. Her daughter, who was 4 at the time, was buckled into her car seat in the back.
Yanez was charged with second-degree manslaughter and two counts of reckless discharge of a firearm after the shooting. A jury found him not guilty on all counts last month.
