A four-year veteran of the St. Anthony police department was identified late Thursday as the officer who fatally shot Philando Castile during a traffic stop Wednesday .
Officer Jeronimo Yanez fired the shots in the case, according to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension late Thursday. The agency also noted that officer Joseph Kauser, who has also been with the St. Anthony police department for four years, took part in the traffic stop.
The BCA, which is conducting an independent investigation, said the officers conducted a traffic stop near Larpenteur Avenue and Fry Street in Falcon Heights about 9:05 p.m. Wednesday. St. Anthony police provide police services in Falcon Heights.
Castile, 32, of St. Paul, was driving and Yanez approached that side of the vehicle, while Kauser came up from the passenger side.
“At one point during the interaction, Officer Yanez discharged his weapon, striking Castile multiple times,” according to the BCA statement. “No one else was injured.” The statement did not detail what led Yanez to fire his gun.
Castile’s 26-year-old girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, was in the passenger seat of the car and her 4-year-old daughter was in the back seat. Reynolds, who live-streamed the aftermath of the shooting on Facebook, said Castile had a permit to carry a gun and that he informed the officer that he was armed. Whether he was permitted cannot be independently verified because the names of permit holders are not public in Minnesota.
The BCA said a gun was recovered at the scene.
Yanez radioed for an ambulance, and responding personnel provided medical attention to Castile until the ambulance arrived, according to the BCA. Castile was taken to the Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, where he died at 9:37 p.m., the medical examiner’s office said.
Both officers have been placed on standard administrative leave.
The BCA said interviews with witnesses are ongoing and investigators have collected several videos as evidence, including squad car video. St. Anthony officers don’t wear body cameras.
On Thursday, the BCA also requested anyone who witnessed the incident to call them at 651-793-7000.
The case will be turned over to the Ramsey County attorney’s office when the investigation is complete. The county attorney’s office typically convenes grand juries in fatal officer-involved shootings to determine whether charges should be filed against an officer.
Yanez was one of four patrol officers added to the St. Anthony police department’s crime prevention unit in 2014, according to city documents. He and the officers were selected after completing a 40-hour class that certified them as crime prevention specialists by the Minnesota Crime Prevention Association.
The officers were chosen because of their “initiative, creativeness and varied backgrounds in law enforcement,” the document said.
The St. Anthony Police Department has 23 sworn officers, as well as 14 reserve officers. In addition to St. Anthony Village, the department provides police services to Falcon Heights and Lauderdale on a contractual basis.
Yanez could not be reached for comment Thursday, nor could family members.