City of St. Anthony, Minn., Reaches $3,000,000 Settlement With Family of Philando Castile 

The city of St. Anthony, Minn., will avoid a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Philando Castile’s family in the wake of his 2016 shooting death by paying out nearly $3 million to his family.

According to the Associated Press, Castile’s mother is set to receive the $2.995 million as settlement in Castile’s death at the hands of a St. Anthony police officer, Valerie Castile’s attorneys and the city of St. Anthony announced Monday.

Castile’s July 6, 2016, death prompted a lot of rage and anguish after the immediate aftermath of the shooting was broadcast on Facebook Live by his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds. That rage and anguish was further amplified after Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez was acquitted in the killing despite seemingly damning police dashcam footage that showed an unsettled Yanez firing into the vehicle carrying Castile, Reynolds and Reynold’s 4-year-old daughter.

The jury’s decision prompted days of protests, as AP notes, including one in St. Paul, Minn., that shut down Interstate 94 for several hours and ended with some 18 arrests.

AP notes that the settlement will be paid out by the League of Minnesota Cities Insurance Trust, which holds the insurance policy for St. Anthony. However, the settlement could take several weeks to be paid out because it still needs to be approved by a state court.

Robert Bennett, one of Valerie Castile’s attorneys, said the settlement was reached in order to move expeditiously rather than to have the case drawn out (once again) in federal court in a process that would “exacerbate and reopen terrible wounds.”

Bennett added that the funds will help Valerie Castile do the work she plans to do through the Philando Castile Relief Fund, which is intended to help victims of gun violence and provide relief for those who have lost loved ones.

Read more at the Associated Press.