The woman who filmed her boyfriend, 37-year-old Philando Castile, as he died from police gunshot wounds during a routine traffic stop Wednesday night spoke to protestors Thursday morning, demanding justice.
Lavish Reynolds, who also goes by Diamond, was detained after filming the aftermath of the incident on her phone and posting it to Facebook live. She spoke to a crowd outside the governor's mansion in St. Paul, Minn. following her release, recounting the night's events and denouncing police violence that ended her boyfriend's life in front of her 4-year-old daughter. Sobbing, she demanded the police who killed Castile be held accountable for their actions.
"I want justice," she said. "He should not be home with his family, he should be somewhere in jail, handcuffed.
Girlfriend behind the #PhilandoCastile video speaks out. pic.twitter.com/Nn5HW83VCV
Reynolds said she was not given water or food while detained until 5 a.m. The police seized her phone as evidence, and she was unable to contact loved ones or check on the status of Castile. Reynolds did not find out her boyfriend had died until 3 a.m., though she said police knew he was dead when he was taken from the scene hours before.
Diamond (Lavish) Reynolds said she wasnt released until 5 am. While Dylan Roof got BK, she and her daughter were not fed. #PhilandoCastile
"Nobody came to comfort me," she said when asked if a police chaplain or social worker was present with her when she heard the news of Castile's death. She said she was lied to about Castile's location, and she did not get there in time to see him before his body was taken away.
“They told me he was at Regions Hospital. When I got to Regions Hospital, he was not there, he was at HCMC," she said. "I never got to see him again, I never got to say my last words."
She called on governor Mark Dayton to protect citizens who are legally carrying weapons and to get more involved with police officers who "are not serving and protecting us." She said the state of Minnesota should be paying for the funerals of people killed by police in the state.
A full video of her remarks and her account of the night's event can be found on Facebook live. She said the officer never checked Castile's pulse and kept his gun pointed at him even after he laid dying. Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery tweeted a transcript of her account of Castile's death.
Here's Diamond "Lavish" Reynolds' account of the shooting of her boyfriend #PhilandoCastile: https://t.co/xjBmlTuGTu pic.twitter.com/jgTHy0pUvT
Addressing the protestors after Reynolds spoke, Dayton said he was "horrified" by the shooting and promised "justice will be served. Protests of the killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, are being staged across the country with events in Austin, New York City, San Diego, Washington, D.C. , Baltimore, and more. Reynolds said she posted the video because she "wanted the people to determine who was right and who was wrong."
"I chose to allow the video to go live... because I wanted everybody in the world to see what the police do," she said. "It is not right. It is not acceptable. I didn't do it for pity, I didn't do it for fame, I did it so the world knows these police are not here to protect and serve us. They are here to assassinate us. They are here to kill us because we are black."
