MPR News To Cover Controversial Police Shooting Case With Podcast

Debuts Monday

AMERICAN PUBLIC MEDIA GROUP/MINNESOTA PUBLIC RADIO's MPR NEWS is taking an unusual approach to covering the upcoming trial of ST. ANTHONY, MN police officer JERONIMO YANEZ for the shooting, streamed by the victim's girlfriend on Facebook Live last JULY 6th, of PHILANDO CASTLE at a traffic stop in FALCON HEIGHTS, MN -- as a podcast series.

"74 SECONDS," named for the length of the fatal traffic stop, will be a five-episode series hosted by MPR NEWS reporters JON COLLINS and RIHAM FESHIR and produced by TRACY MUMFORD and HANS BUETOW, with two episodes, profiling YANEZ and CASTLE, available MONDAY (5/22) and subsequent episodes posting daily starting WEDNESDAY (5/24); the team will continue to provide updates for the length of the trial, to begin MAY 30th.

“Through RIHAM’s and JON’s reporting, we have brought PHILANDO CASTILE and JERONIMO YANEZ back to that moment of the traffic stop and the seven shots that were fired. This encounter had a lot in common with police shootings around the country including some in MINNESOTA,” says MPR NEWS Exec. Dir. MICHAEL EDGERLY. “Even the protests following CASTILE’s death had a familiar feeling. But there were some stark differences and these differences, for us, created the opportunity for some longer form story-telling that, in the end, we hope will create a greater understanding of race and policing in the country.”

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