Justin Timberlake, Hillary Clinton And More Take To Twitter After Disturbing Death Of Philandro Castile
Posted on Thu Jul 7th, 2016 10:50am PDT By X17 Staff
This is beyond disturbing ...
Celebrities have taken to Twitter following a horrific video being live-streamed Facebook on Wednesday night, which showed moments after a black man had been shot by police during a routine traffic stop. Castile was fatally wounded, which makes it the second shooting death of a black man by police officers just this week. Police killed a black man named Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge earlier this week during an attempted arrest. Parts of both deadly encounters were caught on video, and the world has been watching -- and commenting. However, the shocking videos have transfixed a nation and caused outrage among many, including some notable names.
Last night's incident involved a disturbing video, which was live-streamed on Facebook, showing Philandro Castile after he had allegedly been shot four times by police. The clip, which was posted by his girlfriend, Lavish Reynolds, who had been pulled over with Castile while they were driving through Minnesota's St. Paul suburb of Falcon Heights with her four-year-old daughter.
The grisly 10-minute video shows a woman in the passenger seat of a parked car as she sits next to a man in the driver's seat with a blood-soaked shirt, as she narrates what is happening. Reynolds says, "We got pulled over for a busted tail light in the back. And the police just — he's covered — they just killed my boyfriend."
The woman also explains that her boyfriend had a license to carry, but he'd informed the officer that he was armed, as he reached for his identification.
Of course, soon after the video emerged the Internet erupted with shock, dismay, anger and outrage. As of 8 a.m. Thursday, Minnesota's governor Mark Dayton had yet to make a statement on the Castile shooting, but finally emerged late in the morning to say that he was calling for a federal investigation into the incident.
Gov. Dayton may have been slow to respond -- but others were not so quick to hold their tongue on social media.
Justin Timberlake, Hillary Clinton and John Legend were just some of the famous faces commenting about the gruesome violence towards blacks.
Justin Timberlake tweeted this morning, "Couldn't even sleep last night... First, #AltonSterling and then this video of #PhilandoCastile being brutally killed. This. Must. Stop."
Hillary Clinton wrote, "America woke up to yet another tragedy of a life cut down too soon. Black Lives Matter. #PhilandoCastile -H"
Last night, John Legend shared, "So many people work so hard to find a reason why executing a human being during a routine traffic stop is ok. IT'S NOT OK."
Legend is right -- this is not okay.
Couldn't even sleep last night... First, #AltonSterling and then this video of #PhilandoCastile being brutally killed. This. Must. Stop.
— Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake) July 7, 2016
This IS systemic. We MUST DO BETTER. My heart goes out to the families of #AltonSterling and #PhilandoCastile May they both Rest In Peace.
— Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake) July 7, 2016
America woke up to yet another tragedy of a life cut down too soon. Black Lives Matter. #PhilandoCastile -H
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 7, 2016
We should not have to jump through hoops to prove black people shouldn't be shot by police during routine traffic stops.
— John Legend (@johnlegend) July 7, 2016
So many people work so hard to find a reason why executing a human being during a routine traffic stop is ok. IT'S NOT OK
— John Legend (@johnlegend) July 7, 2016