74 Seconds podcast: An officer charged
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In July 2016, police officer Jeronimo Yanez shot Philando Castile during a traffic stop. Yanez has been charged with manslaughter. Reporters from MPR News will follow the case, beginning with the traffic stop, in a new podcast called "74 Seconds."
Seventy-four seconds is the amount of time that elapsed between the moment Yanez turned on his squad car lights to the moment he fired the seventh and final shot into Castile's car.
Episodes launched May 22, and our coverage continues when the trial begins: On the podcast, on the radio and on our website at mprnews.org/74seconds.
2: The Officer
Until that hot July night he pulled over Philando Castile, Jeronimo Yanez's career in law enforcement had been generally unremarkable: He had no complaints on his record, and his routine mostly involved traffic stops.
He worked the night shift, patrolling three small suburbs on the northern borders of Minneapolis and St. Paul. And he's now become the first Minnesota police officer in more than 35 years of record-keeping who has been charged for fatally shooting a person while on duty.
As is typical before a trial, neither Yanez nor people close to him have talked to the media. He hasn't given any interviews. Neither has his family or close friends.
To tell his story, we've had to work around that silence.