Philando Castile Charity Covers Entire School Districts Lunch Debt [View all]

[Stonepounder]

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/philando-castile-charity-pays-school-debt_us_5a9b2c1ee4b089ec353ae3c7

Two years after he was fatally shot by a police officer in Minnesota, Philando Castile is still helping students afford lunch.

A charity created in Castile’s honor has paid off the lunch debt for every student in the 56 schools in the St. Paul Public School District, including the school where Castile worked as a cafeteria supervisor.

“That means no parent of the 37,000 kids who eat meals at school need worry about how to pay that overdue debt,” a charity organizer wrote on the “Philando Feeds the Children” fundraising page.

<snip>

In July 2016, St. Anthony Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez shot and killed Castile after pulling him over for a broken taillight in a St. Paul suburb.

Yanez maintained that he thought Castile was reaching for the weapon, while Diamond Reynolds, Castile’s girlfriend who filmed the traffic stop from the passenger seat, said he was reaching for his wallet.

---------------------------

This was the shooting where the victim's girlfriend, who was sitting in the passenger seat, filmed the incident. Even though both the police dash-cam and the girlfriend's video shows Philando remaining calm, doing exactly what the officer asked, the officer claimed he 'thought the suspect was reaching for a gun'. The cop was found 'not guilty'.

However, the charity now has enough money to make sure that no child goes hungry due to lack of funds 'for years to come'.