Diamond Reynolds, the brave woman who live-streamed what happened after boyfriend Philando Castile was shot by a police officer last week in Minnesota, appeared on The View today to speak about his death. With her lawyer in the audience, Reynolds answered questions from the show’s hosts about what happened in the moments before she began her live stream, how her daughter is handling the event and how she’s found the strength to remain so calm throughout everything.
Reynolds was composed throughout the interview, tearing up only while talking about her 4-year-old daughter, who witnessed the shooting, and while revealing what she’d want people to know about Castile. Reynolds said that her daughter has been having “God dreams,” in which Castile speaks to her. “I believe that he’s living through her,” Reynolds said of both Castile and her daughter. “She says things to me like ’Mom, Phil says this’ or ’Mom, Phil says that’ or ’Mom, I’m gonna make Phil some soup because that’s gonna make him feel better and come back.'”
Reynolds said that she was able to remain so calm during the incident because she truly didn’t have any other choice. “Any sudden moves, any nervousness would have made the police officer strike us,” she said, adding that God led her to stream the incident on social media so people could see it and ultimately, judge for themselves.
Reynolds reminded everyone that the reason she and Castile had been pulled over was for a busted taillight. She said that Castile had followed procedures, done everything that he was asked in a calm manner and did nothing that should have prompted his shooting. “I just wanted people to know that these incidents do happen and we don’t bring them on ourselves. It was just so that people could be aware of situations like this,” Reynolds said.
Watch her full interview on The View below.