NFL Players Outraged by Philando Castile Shooting

By Carlo Monzon
Philando Castile Shooting
People take part in a protest against the killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile during a march through Manhattan, with the Empire State Building seen in the background, in New York July 7, 2016.  REUTERS/Darren Ornitz

Several NFL players have expressed their outrage through Twitter following the shooting of Philando Castile during a traffic stop in Minnesota. The incident happened just days after a police officer shot and killed Alton Sterling in Louisiana.

The initial details of the recent shooting was provided by Diamond Reynolds, the victim's girlfriend through a live video she posted on her Facebook account. The clip, which is over eight minutes long, started almost immediately after Castile was shot by a police officer who pulled the couple over on Wednesday morning at Falcon Heights.

Through the video, Reynolds said that her boyfriend was a licensed gun owner. She also said that Castile told the police officer that he had a gun with him. He also made it clear to the officer that he will reach for his I.D. inside his wallet. According to Reynolds, that's when the officer shot Castile four times.

The video posted by Reynolds is very graphic and hard to watch. It shows a bloodied Castile sitting on the driver's seat. He eventually died due to the gunshot injuries he sustained.

The incident immediately drew out the outrage of the public, especially since it happened just hours after a similar shooting of a black man occurred in a different state. Several NFL players also expressed their anger over what happened to Castile and the fact that incident such as this keep on happening in different parts of the country.

"We are under attack," San Francisco 49ers Colin Kaepernick tweeted. "It's clear as day! Less than 24 hours later another body in the street!"

"The issue we discuss that people don't wanna acknowledge are years and years of a cycle," Duane Brown of the Houston Texans also posted. "Those who vowed to serve and protect murdering us."

Sharrif Floyd, the defensive tackle for the Minnesota Vikings pointed out that fact that even though Castile was clearly injured and in need of urgent medical assistance, the police officer in the video did not do anything to try to help him.

"To shoot a man [and] make no attempt to help him is crazy," he tweeted. "This guy died on Facebook live for carrying a gun which he was licensed to carry."

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