The police officer who shot Philando Castile during a routine traffic stop last year immediately tried to justify the killing in police interviews afterwards by suggesting that because the young black father had the 'guts' to smoke marijuana in front of his young daughter, he was no doubt violent and would have attacked him.
Jeronimo Yarez opened fire on Castile as he sat in the passenger seat of his car in St. Anthony, Minnesota, last July. Castile's four-year-old daughter was in the backseat and his girlfriend was driving.
When Castile admitted calmly that he was carrying a gun, the cop immediately drew his open weapon and began firing while shouting: 'Don't reach for it!'
Yarez, who pulled them over for a broken tail light, claimed in police interviews afterwards that he could tell Castile had been smoking marijuana as soon as he approached the vehicle and used it as part of his justification for opening fire on him.
'I thought I was gonna die and I thought if he's, if he has the, the guts and the audacity to smoke marijuana in front of the five year old girl and risk her lungs and risk her life by giving her secondhand smoke and the front seat passenger doing the same thing then what, what care does he give about me,' Yarez told investigators afterwards.
The police officer was cleared of manslaughter last week despite global outrage over the shooting which grabbed headlines because of Castile's girlfriend who live-streamed the aftermath of it on Facebook.
On Tuesday, authorities released the dash-cam footage from Yarez's patrol car which shows the seconds which preceded it.
That footage shows how, after being shot, Castile wailed: 'I wasn't reaching!' - a detail Yarez left out of his police interview when asked if he'd the victim had said anything after being shot.
'No he did not respond. Um he just kept his arms up and I don't remember hearing anything coming out of his mouth if he said anything,' he said.image
The harrowing video also shows Castile's young daughter opening the door of the car and slowly crawling out, confused, as her father lay reeling in the front seat after being shot.
She was scooped up in confusion by Yarez's partner and taken away from the vehicle.
It showed from start to finish how Yanez pulled the family over and told Castile and his girlfriend that their tail light was broken.
Castile was then heard telling him calmly: 'Sir, I have to tell you, I do have a firearm on me.'
Castile, a 32-year-old elementary school cafeteria worker, had a permit to carry the weapon.
Before Castile could finish his sentence, Yanez drew his own gun.
'Don't reach for it then!' he shouted. He then screamed: 'Don't pull it out!' before firing seven shots in quick succession.
Castile's body was thrown to the right after the first shot. Yanez's backup, Officer Joseph Kauser, jumped back and retreated when the shots were fired.*
(*If Philando reached for his gun, why didn't the murderer's backup pull his gun at any point in time during the incident?)
Yanez was charged with manslaughter but was cleared last week by a jury.
Ten of the 12 jurors were white. They deliberated for five days before telling a judge that they could not break out of deadlock last Wednesday.
They were sent back to deliberate further then, on Friday, acquitted the 29-year-old police officer.