The family of Philando Castile, the school cafeteria worker killed by police during a routine traffic stop last June in St. Anthony, Minnesota, has reached a settlement of nearly $3 million with the city in order to avoid a bringing a wrongful death case to federal court.
Robert Bennett, the attorney for Castile’s mother, Valerie, said in a statement that a fFederal trial would “exacerbate and reopen terrible wounds.” The settlement comes a little over a week after the officer who killed Castile, Jeronimo Yanez, was acquitted in the shooting.
Yanez contends that Castile was reaching for a gun, and that the alleged scent of marijuana in the car, where Castile's daughter was buckled in the backseat, indicated that he had no regard for human life. In squad car video of the incident, Castile can be heard saying, “I’m not pulling it out” just before Yanez fires seven shots. Castile’s last words were “I wasn’t reaching.”
Correction: This story has been updated to correctly attribute news sources.
