ATLANTA — An Atlanta judge will represent the family of a man killed by a police officer in Minnesota. The case has sparked outrage across the country.
in suburban St. Paul, Minnesota after a traffic stop.%
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Castile’s girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, has said Castile was shot several times while reaching for his wallet, after telling the officer he had a gun and a permit to carry it. She live-streamed the gruesome aftermath of the Wednesday shooting on Facebook.
Judge Glenda Hatchett announced Monday that she and the Hatchett Law Firm will represent Castile’s family in all civil matters related to Castile’s death.
“I am deeply concerned about what seems to be an epidemic of African-American men being killed by police officers. We have often seemed demonstrations and debates and I raise the critical question, ‘When will there be systemic reform?’ Reform such that, citizens are not in fear of their lives when stopped and questioned by the police,” Hatchett said in a news release Monday.
READ: Mother of Philando Castile: 'We are being hunted'
Court records reviewed by the Associated Press show Castile had no felony record but had been pulled over dozens of times since 2002 for a variety of minor offenses.
Investigators have declined to say what led up to last week's shooting of the 32-year-old school cafeteria supervisor, whose death helped spark protests around the nation, including one in Dallas in which five police officers were killed and several more were wounded.
Yanez is a four-year veteran of the police department in St. Anthony, a predominantly white St. Paul suburb whose police department also patrols the community of Falcon Heights, where Castile was pulled over.
The day before the shooting, state police released a bulletin seeking the public's help finding a pair of black men who held up a convenience store less than 2 miles down the same street from where Yanez stopped Castile, in an area also patrolled by St. Anthony police. The men stole cash and Newport cigarettes at gunpoint.
Yanez and another officer who was with him have been placed on leave, as is standard practice. He is cooperating with investigators, who have interviewed him at length, Kelly said.
Hatchett is the host of the nationally syndicated television show “Judge Hatchett” and has served eight years as former chief judge of the Juvenile Court of Fulton County.
Hatchett is expected to hold a news conference Tuesday with Castile’s mother,
, to talk about taking on this case.
“Valerie Castile and her family are very passionate and committed to ensuring that Philando’s death is not just another statistic,” Hatchett said. “She wants her son’s death to mark a time in this country’s history where reform becomes less about rhetoric and more about reality.”
Cox Media Group
