Black motorist killed during traffic stop in US

A woman in the US state of Minnesota posted on YouTube what she described as the aftermath of a Wednesday police shooting of her boyfriend during a routine traffic stop.

The fatal incident came hours after the US Justice Department said it had opened an investigation into two police officers fatally shooting an unarmed black man, Anton Sterling, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The two shootings have stoked anger in the US about the high rate of killings by US law enforcement, especially against minorities.

Graphic video captures man's final moments

The 10-minute video of the Minnesota shooting shows the wounded man, who family members identified as 32-year-old Philando Castile, bleeding in the driver's seat.

"The officer said, 'Don't move,'" the woman in the video explains into the camera. "As he was putting his hands back up, the officer shot him in the arm four or five times."

The video captures a visibly upset police officer still pointing a handgun through the driver's side window, the weapon trained on the barely conscious man.

"He was just reaching for his wallet," the woman tells the officer in the video. A child in the back seat is heard crying.

"I told him not to reach for it!" the officer screams, his handgun still aimed at the bleeding man. "I told him to keep his hand open!"

"You told him to get his ID, sir, and his license," the woman replies calmly.

The St. Anthony Police Department said Thursday that a black motorist was fatally wounded in an officer-involved shooting during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights, Minnesota.

Police said a handgun was recovered at the scene. The woman in the video says Castile was licensed to carry the handgun and he had informed the officer he was carrying it moments before he was shot several times.

"He doesn't deserve this," the woman was heard saying as she cried in the video. "He was a good man."

Clarence Castile, Philando's uncle, said his nephew had worked at a local school cafeteria for more than 12 years, "cooking for the little kids." He said his nephew was "a good kid," who grew up in the area and died of his injuries at a nearby hospital.

State authorities investigating

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension has been called to investigate the shooting.

In the early morning hours Thursday, scores of people had gathered at the scene of the shooting near St. Paul, the state capital, the "Star Tribune" newspaper reported. The newspaper reported the crowd was angry but peaceful.

Another group of about 100 people converged at the residence of Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton in nearby St. Paul, chanting "No Justice, No Peace," while car horns sounded, the paper reported.

Sgt. Jon Mangseth of the St. Anthony Police Department said the officer involved in the shooting has been with the police department for five years. The unidentified policeman has been placed on paid leave pending an investigation.

Obama responds

President Barack Obama on Thursdaý responded to the two fatal shootings, saying they were not "isolated incidents."

"We've seen such tragedies far too many times, and our hearts go out to the families and communities who've suffered such a painful loss," he said in a message on Facebook.

"They are sympotomatic of teh broader challenges within our criminal justice system, the racial disparities that appear across the system year after year, and the resulting lack of trust that exits between law enforcement and too many of the communities they serve," he said.

"To admit we have got a serious problem in no way contradicts our respect and appreciation for the vast majority of police officers who put their lives on the line to protect us every single day," he added.

jar/sms (Reuters, AP)