The governor of the northern US state asked the White House to order a federal probe last night's shooting in Falcon Heights, near Minneapolis, as calls mounted for justice for the 32-year-old victim Philando Castile.
A four-year-old girl witnessed the shooting from the back seat of the car, as her mother -- Castile's girlfriend -- livestreamed the bloody aftermath while an officer pointed his gun through the window.
"Not one shot. Not two shots. Not three shots. Not four shots. But five shots," she said in a forceful appeal for justice to be served.
Pulled over for a broken tail light, Castile informed the officer he was carrying a licensed gun, Reynolds said, and was shot as he reached for his license and registration.
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She said the officer, whom she described as an Asian male, made conflicting demands of Castile -- both that he keep his hands in the air and that he identify himself.
Reynolds said her phone had been seized as evidence and voiced fear of a police cover-up.
"They're gonna tamper with evidence," she told reporters. "They're gonna do whatever they have to do to cover their butts."
But Governor Mark Dayton pledged to push for a full and independent inquiry by the Department of Justice -- which is already investigating the police shooting of a black man caught on video two days earlier in Louisiana.
America's debate on police use of lethal force, especially against young black men, was set to hit fever pitch as a fourth officer went on trial Thursday in one of the highest-profile such cases of recent years.
Three officers so far have escaped conviction in the case of Freddie Gray, a young black man who died last year in Baltimore after suffering spinal injuries in the back of a police van.
On Tuesday this week, a black father of five, 37-year-old Alton Sterling, was pinned to the ground and shot several times at point blank range in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, prompting the launch of a federal civil rights probe.