Her name is Diamond Reynolds, and her 15 minutes of fame came in July 2016 when she live-streamed on Facebook the aftermath of the police shooting that claimed the life of her boyfriend Philando Castile.
Reynolds’s behavior at the time raised some eyebrows. Some commentators on the right observed that her actions seemed rather detached, if not downright bizarre. As the man she presumably loved lay bleeding out on the seat next to her, her first thoughts were not to seek medical attention but to dispassionately record the events following his fatal run-in with St. Paul police.
Needless to say, the story went viral, especially after the governor of Minnesota, a Democrat, declared publicly that police wouldn’t have shot and killed Philando Castile if he’d been white. In addition, an amateur video capturing an impassioned, tearful Reynolds crying for justice kept the story in the headlines, even as questions about what really down began to surface.
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Now Diamond Reynolds is in the headlines again. Via the Twin Cities Pioneer Press:
Prosecutors on Friday charged Diamond Reynolds with felony assault in an alleged hammer attack on a woman in St. Paul.
[…]
[P]olice say a 24-year-old woman in St. Paul suffered serious injuries…. Officers arrested Reynolds and two other women in the case Thursday….
At the hospital, officers saw the victim had blood on her face that appeared to be coming from her forehead, along with blood on her shirt. She reported she’d been driving earlier on Magnolia Avenue when she noticed a sport-utility vehicle make a U-turn and follow her as she approached Barclay Street. As she parked on Jessamine Lane and got out of her vehicle, she heard someone holler at her, the complaint said.
The woman looked up and saw Reynolds and another woman, later identified as 28-year-old Chnika Blair, coming at her. Reynolds ran up and punched her in the head with a closed fist, while Blair grabbed her hair, according to the complaint.
At one point, Reynolds hit her in the head with a hammer, knocking her to the ground and continued to strike her in the head with the hammer when she was on the ground, the complaint continued. The woman said she “blacked out for a moment” and then saw Reynolds striking her vehicle’s windshield, which broke.
It appears from other details in the story that Reynolds and the victim were acquainted — that the victim’s friend, referred to in the police report as “Y.G.,” had bad blood between them.
