FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. — A woman who watched as a police officer fatally shot her boyfriend during a traffic stop streamed the gruesome aftermath of the slaying live on Facebook, telling a worldwide audience that her companion had been shot "for no apparent reason" while reaching for his wallet.
Within hours, the Minnesota governor was pressing for the Justice Department to open its second investigation of the week into the death of a black man at the hands of police.
The latest shooting happened late Wednesday in the St. Paul suburb of Falcon Heights, a community of 5,000 people that is also home to Minnesota's annual state fair and part of the massive University of Minnesota campus.
In the video, Diamond Reynolds describes being pulled over for a "busted tail light" and said her boyfriend had told the officer he was carrying a gun for which he was licensed.
As word of the shooting spread, relatives of the man joined scores of people who gathered at the scene and outside the hospital where he died. They identified him as Philando Castile of St. Paul, a well-liked 32-year-old cafeteria supervisor at a Montessori school.
Reynolds said Thursday that he was killed even though he complied with the officer's instructions. She told reporters that Castile did "nothing but what the police officer asked of us, which was to put your hands in the air and get your license and registration."
Gov. Mark Reynolds stressed that not all facts are known but nonetheless called it a senseless death that was apparently fueled in some part by racism.
"Nobody should be shot and killed in Minnesota for a tail light being out of function," he said. "Would this have happened if those passengers would have been white? I don't think it would have."
Dayton said the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension had opened an investigation. The Justice Department said it planned to monitor the state probe and would provide assistance if needed.
Speaking to CNN, Castile's mother said that she suspected she would never learn the whole truth about her son's death.
"I think he was just black in the wrong place," Valerie Castile said Thursday, adding that she had underlined to her children that they must do what authorities tell them to do to survive.
"I know my son ... we know black people have been killed ... I always told them, whatever you do when you get stopped by police, comply, comply, comply."
Police did not release any details about the officer who fired except to say he had been placed on paid administrative leave. Reynolds described him as Asian.
It was the second fatal police shooting this week, coming only days after a black 37-year-old man was killed by officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Alton Sterling's death was caught on video.
Read Friday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.