The Minnesota police officer who was acquitted in last year’s fatal shooting of black motorist Philando Castile will receive US$48,500 as he leaves the suburban department that employed him at the time of the killing, according to a separation agreement announced on Monday.
Jeronimo Yanez will be paid the money in a lump sum, minus applicable deductions and withholdings for state and US federal taxes.
Under the five-page agreement released through a public records request, the Minneapolis suburb of St Anthony also will pay Yanez for up to 600 hours of accrued and unused personal leave pay. The agreement, which has Monday’s date, does not say how much time he has accrued.
His annual salary at the time of the July 6 shooting was more than US$72,600, not including overtime pay, according to documents released by the city.
Yanez shot Castile, a 32-year-old elementary school cafeteria worker, several times during a traffic stop after Castile told the officer he was armed. Castile had a permit for his gun.
The shooting gained widespread attention after Castile’s girlfriend, who was in the car along with her then-four-year-old daughter, livestreamed its gruesome aftermath on Facebook.
Yanez, 29 and Latino, was acquitted last month of manslaughter and other charges.
On the day of the verdict, the city announced the “public will be best served” if Yanez were no longer an officer.
The city on Monday said that the agreement “ends all employment rights” for Yanez.
“Since Officer Yanez was not convicted of a crime, as a public employee, he would have appeal and grievance rights if terminated,” it said in a statement. “A reasonable voluntary separation agreement brings to a close one part of this horrible tragedy. The city concluded this was the most thoughtful way to move forward and help the community-wide healing process proceed.”
Castile’s uncle, Clarence Castile, said his is glad Yanez will no longer be an officer.
“He should be in jail,” the uncle said. “He’s like a fish that wiggled his way off a hook… Hopefully he won’t be able to get a police job in the United States. Because he’s a poor example of a police officer.”
After the trial, Castile’s mother, Valerie Castile, reached a nearly US$3 million settlement with the city to preclude a lawsuit.
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
Former Chinese ministers of national defense Wei Fenghe(魏鳳和) and Li Shangfu (李尚福) were both sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve over graft charges, state news agency Xinhua reported on Thursday, underscoring the severity of the purge in the military. The armed forces have been one of the main targets of a broad corruption crackdown ordered by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) after coming to power in 2012. The purges reached the elite Rocket Force, which oversees nuclear weapons as well as conventional missiles, in 2023. Earlier this year they escalated further, resulting in the removal of the top general in
New Zealand is open to expanding its frigate fleet beyond its current two vessels, with New Zealand Minister of Defence Chris Penk saying “no options are off the table” as the government weighs buying new warships from Japan or the UK. The government yesterday said it is looking to replace its two aging Anzac-class frigates, which were both commissioned almost 30 years ago. The UK’s Type 31 and Japan’s Mogami-class warships are the options under consideration. Speaking in an interview, Penk said there is potential to increase the number of frigates the nation purchases. “We need a certain amount of capability as a
The Philippine Coast Guard yesterday said it deployed aircraft to issue radio warnings to a Chinese research ship in a disputed area of the South China Sea “swarming” with vessels from Beijing’s so-called maritime militia. The research vessel Xiang Yang Hong 33 (向陽紅33), which is capable of supporting submersible craft, was operating near a reef in the contested Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島), which Taiwan also claims, the Philippine Coast Guard said. The Chinese ship was deploying a service boat toward the Spratly’s Iroquois Reef on Wednesday when it was spotted by a coast guard plane, “confirming ongoing unauthorized [marine scientific research]
RSS