Vigil: A community mourns, seeks end to violence

Protesters gathered at the governor's residence.
Protesters gathered in front of the governor's residence to protest the killing of Philando Castile.
Christopher Juhn for MPR News

At a vigil Thursday evening outside a public Montessori school where Philando Castile worked, his mother, Valerie Castile called her son "an angel." Though she recalled cautioning him to always comply with police, she said she never thought she would lose him.

"This has to cease. This has to stop, right now," she told the crowd.

A big crowd for the rally.
Many people came out for the rally for Philando Castile at the J.J. Hill Montessori School in St. Paul on July 7, 2016.
Courtney Perry for MPR News

Hundreds of demonstrators braved rain showers and gathered outside the governor's mansion in St. Paul.

The group swelled to over 1,000 for a time as people marched from the school vigil. Dayton waded through the crowd as protesters chanted: "What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!"

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Some 200-300 protesters with a large supply of donated food and water were still there as midnight approached.

On a trip to Poland, President Barack Obama called on law enforcement to root out bias in its ranks, saying the Minnesota and Louisiana shootings were symptoms of a "broader set of racial disparities" in the justice system that aren't being fixed quickly enough.

"When incidents like this occur, there's a big chunk of our fellow citizenry that feels as if it's because of the color of their skin, they are not being treated the same," Obama said several hours before a shooting took place in Dallas. "And that hurts. And that should trouble all of us."

Speaking later, he said America is "horrified" over the Dallas shootings and there's no possible justification for the attacks.