Little is still known about what happened before Diamond Reynolds brought out her phone to document the shooting of boyfriend Philando Castile in suburban Minneapolis Wednesday, but on Monday Reynolds refuted the idea that the officer shot and killed Castile because of “the presence of that gun and the display of that gun" alleged by lawyers representing the officer.
“Absolutely incorrect,” Reynolds told MSNBC’s Tamron Hall. “There was never any visibility of the gun… [Castile] was very laid back, he complied, he did exactly what he was told, and that was only license and registration.”
Reynolds’ lawyer Larry Rogers Jr., who was interviewed alongside his client Monday, added that officer also didn’t suggest Castile reacted to the gun during her Facebook Live broadcast.
“He had no arrest record whatsoever…” Rogers said. “He was simply being profiled, I’d suggest.”
Reynolds explained Monday that she was worried as soon as Officer Jeronimo Yanez walked up to the car, because “his energy was off.” She said she believed “at the end of the day it was going to be the law enforcement’s word over mine” and told Hall she planned to record “the instant” she was able to.
"I would like for people to understand that we don’t bring these types of situations upon ourselves," Reynolds said, “and even still we can’t result to violence and outrage… if we were Caucasian or not minority we would have not been stopped."