ST. PAUL — A suburban Minnesota police officer who killed a black driver reacted to the man’s gun, not his race, his attorney said Saturday, as demonstrations over police shootings resumed in Minnesota and Louisiana.
St. Anthony, Mo., police Officer Jeronimo Yanez was reacting to ‘‘the presence of that gun and the display of that gun’’ when he opened fire on Philando Castile, Minneapolis attorney Thomas Kelly said.
Kelly declined to elaborate on how Castile displayed the weapon or what led up to the deadly traffic stop.
Castile’s girlfriend Diamond Reynolds was in the car and streamed the immediate aftermath of the shooting live on Facebook. She has said Yanez shot Castile several times after he told the officer he had a gun and a permit for it and then reached for his wallet.
Yanez ‘‘was reacting to the actions of the driver,’’ Kelly said. ‘‘This had nothing to do with race. This had everything to do with the presence of a gun.’’
Outside the Minnesota governor’s mansion Saturday, demonstrators calling for justice in the fatal police shooting of a black driver marked a third straight day of protests.
A crowd that once numbered about 1,500 has dwindled to a couple of dozen protesters by midday Saturday. They formed a circle in the street in front of the governor’s residence as an organizer prayed for peace and togetherness.
On the fence in front of the mansion, protesters posted signs, some of which read ‘‘Justice for Philando’’ and ‘‘Stop Police Brutality.’’
In Baton Rouge, La., on Saturday, protests resumed hours after demonstrations over a video-recorded police shooting of Alton Sterling produced tense moments resulting in 30 arrests.
Baton Rouge police said they are investigating a newspaper website’s video that appears to show an officer with his weapon temporarily drawn at one point early Saturday morning as angry protesters confronted police.
‘‘We are reviewing the video. It’s difficult to tell why the officer pulled his weapon. We are working to identify this officer so we can better understand the reason he might have done this,’’ police Lieutenant Jonny Dunnam said in a statement.
The demonstrations in Baton Rouge have been largely peaceful, but there were some tense moments. The East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s office released a list of 30 people arrested in the demonstrations — most for obstructing a highway, but three for inciting to riot.
‘‘After the Dallas murder of five officers at a protest the night before officers are very cautious and on the lookout for any threat,’’ Dunnam’s statement said. ‘‘Tensions were very high last night on both sides. But in the end cooler heads prevailed.’’
Less than 24 hours after the Minnesota shooting, Governor Mark Dayton declared that police likely wouldn’t have fired if Castile had been white. Dayton later said he stood by his statement, even though he angered some in law enforcement.
Whether a black man is legally in possession of a gun might not matter in the tense moments of an encounter with an officer, said Philip Smith, president and founder of the National African American Gun Association.
‘‘They’re not getting any kind of the benefit of the doubt,’’ Smith said.
Kelly, the attorney, said Yanez, who is Latino, is ‘‘overcome with sadness’’ about the shooting in the St. Paul suburb of Falcon Heights, a mostly white community of 5,000 that is served primarily by the nearby St. Anthony Police Department.
Yanez and an officer who was with him, Joseph Kauser, were put on administrative leave, as is standard, authorities said. Both are four-year veterans of the St. Anthony force.
Yanez’s position with the 23-member department was his first in law enforcement, after jobs in security and doing contract immigration compliance work, Kelly said. The 28-year-old has a wife and child and graduated from Minnesota State University Mankato with a degree in law enforcement in 2010.
‘‘He’s a very sensitive officer; he cares about people,’’ Kelly said. ‘‘He would drive around and stop and talk, and get out of the car, meet people and say hello.’’
In 2014, the department selected Yanez to be part of a special crime prevention unit, whose members were hand-picked based on ‘‘their initiative, creativeness and varied backgrounds in law enforcement,’’ according to the department’s annual report.
About the same time, Yanez joined the Minnesota chapter of the National Latino Peace Officers Association, where he worked to raise money for and connect with Latino youth, said John Lozoya, one of the organization’s founders.
Lozoya recalled him as an active, passionate, and approachable member. ‘‘This man had the well-earned respect of his colleagues,’’ Kelly said.
Yanez is cooperating with state investigators, who interviewed him within 15 hours of the shooting, Kelly said.
