Much of what we think we know about the shooting of Philando Castile by police in Minnesota is false.  But we shouldn’t be surprised, because the media sticks to The Narrative.  You know, the near mandatory narrative that the American media can apply to any instance of a white person (or even a “White Hispanic”) killing a black person.  An innocent and sympathetic black person has been victimized by white racism.  We saw this in the deaths of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, with significant facts utterly repressed by the media.  In the Trayvon Martin death, “sundance” of The Conservative Treehouse did the hard work of investigative journalism and became the leading source of information on the trial of George Zimmerman.  Sundance has credibility in my book.

His work has now led him to debunk significant aspects of the narrative we have heard about the police shooting in Falcon Heights, Minnesota:

The Falcon Heights, Minnesota police shooting of Philando Castile is based around an entirely false narrative.  Castile and Ms. Diamond Reynolds (Facebook video uploader) were pulled over by police because Castile matched a BOLO Alert for an armed robbery suspect from four days prior.

Sundance provides surveillance camera pictures of the robbery in progress, and whaddya know: Castile does look worth stopping.

The armed robbery occurred on July 2nd 7:30pm (Sat).  The CCTV images were given to media and LEO by detectives on July 5th (Tuesday).  A BOLO (Be On Look Out) alert was issued the same day, Tuesday July 5th.  Philando Castile was pulled over on July 6th.

From the radio dispatch of Officer Jeronimo Yanez:

“I’m going to stop a car. I’m going to check IDs.  I have reason to pull it over.”

“The two occupants just look like people that were involved in a robbery. The driver looks more like one of our suspects, just ‘cause of the wide set nose.” 

Ms. Reynolds also claims her boyfriend, Castile, was holding a concealed carry permit for a firearm that was resting on his left thigh.  This also appears to be false.

According to a question presented to the local county sheriff who oversees the Concealed Carry Permit process, Mr. Castile had never requested a concealed carry permit from their office:

It is possible a CCP was obtained in another county, however the media are conflating “permit to purchase” with “concealed carry permit”.  For some reason the CCP ownership is being amplified; it really has no bearing and is largely irrelevant for the context of the situation.  That said, there is no factual evidence Mr. Philando Castile had a CCP.

There are a number of other issues with the narrative.  Sundance does such a good job explaining his or her work.  It is well worth reading in its entirety.

Hat tip: BFH at iOTWReport