Diamond Reynolds on Police Detainment: ‘I Was Not Allowed to Talk to Anybody’

By Sameer Rao Jul 07, 2016

Lavisha "Diamond" Reynolds was forced into the national spotlight after livestreaming video of her partner, Philando Castile, dying from gunshot wounds inflicted by a Minnesota police officer during a traffic stop. Reynolds addressed her partner’s killing, her and her daughter’s treatment while in police custody and her demand for justice in a press conference earlier today (July 7).

"The police did this to our community," a distraught Reynolds told a gathering of supporters and media outside the Minnesota Governor’s Residence in Saint Paul. "They took me off the scene. I was not allowed to talk to anybody, and up until 5 o’clock this morning when they dropped me off on my doorstep." 

Reynolds elaborated on the circumstances of her detainment, saying that she and her young daughter were separated and not fed or given water while in custody. She also asked that Mark Dayton, Minnesota’s governor, give those with licenses to carry guns—like Castile, who Reyonlds said disclosed his legal possession of a weapon to the officers before he was shot—protection under the law.

Reynolds further said that other officers on the scene comforted the officer who shot Castile while arresting her. 

When one reporter asked her why she livestreamed the video on Facebook, Reynolds said that she did so "because I wanted everyone in the world to know that no matter how much the police tamper with evidence, how much they stick together, no matter how they manipulate our minds to believe what they want, I wanted to put it on Facebook and go viral so that the people to see."

Watch video from the press conference here:

(H/t CNN