According to testimony from the officer, there was an armed robbery suspect on the loose with dreadlocks and a "wide set nose." As Officer Yanez passed Philando's car, he believed Philando matched the description and said as much when he radio'd in. Since he was potentially about to confront an armed robbery suspect, the officer was more on edge than usual, especially being only a 2 year veteran.
At the stop Philando informed the officer he was carrying a gun. The officer probably drew his weapon at this point. Unfortunately either the officer did not make himself fully clear or Philando didn't completely understand and he may have taken his gun out. The cell phone video appears to show the gun sitting on his lap, however first responder testimony say it was still in his pocket. Either way, if he was reaching towards the vicinity of the gun, was ordered not to, yet still did, the end result is what we have before us now.
Philando was a great guy and his death is unnecessary and tragic. There is no way he was reaching for his gun to harm the officer. However, mix one jittery, young cop with someone reaching for their gun, even to innocently hand it over because they may have misunderstood the officer's orders, and the end result is never good.
This doesn't make the officer a murderer or a racist. The prosecution failed to demonstrate Officer Yanez intended to kill Philando and failed to demonstrate he recklessly discharged his firearm. They may have had a better case for negligent homicide, but that may have had trouble sticking since the reckless firearm discharge did not. What did happen here is an unfortunate series of events that didn't need to occur.
Our next steps should not be to "demand justice," block interstates, or march in protest, it should be take a hard look at police procedure, better train our police on how to handle stops like this with people legally carrying a firearm, and to continually reinforce and remind legal gun owners on how police are trained to handle them, what the police will ask of them, and exactly how to comply during a traffic stop.
Officer Yanez is not a murderer, Philando Castille was a good guy who didn't deserve to die, and it's incumbent on all of us to read, listen, and analyze the facts before rushing to judgement or taking action.