FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. (AP) – Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton says he doesn’t think a police officer would have shot and killed a driver who apparently was pulled over for a broken taillight if the driver had been white instead of black.
Dayton said Thursday at a news conference in St. Paul that he thinks the police response was “way over” what was called for when the officer shot Philando Castile several times as he sat in his car Wednesday in the St. Paul suburb of Falcon Heights.
Dayton, a Democrat, says nobody should be killed for a broken taillight or while sitting in their car and that he was “deeply, deeply offended” by Castile’s death.
Castile’s girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, broadcast the aftermath of the shooting from inside the car on Facebook. Castile later died.