Mower County Sheriff Terese Amazi has joined the ranks of state law enforcement officials speaking out against Gov. Mark Dayton’s comments after a police officer shot and killed Philando Castile last week.

“I think his comments made toward law enforcement are dangerous,” Amazi said Wednesday morning.

“It’s unacceptable,” she added.

Amazi penned a letter to Dayton earlier this week expressing how “deeply troubled” she felt regarding his comments made about the Philando Castile shooting death.

“To say that you did not think this incident would have taken place if the driver and passenger were white is irreprehensible and irresponsible,” she wrote in a letter to the governor.

She went on to say his comments were based on very limited information prior to a complete investigation.

“Your comments lumped all law enforcement officers into a racist grouping,” she wrote in the letter. “This is false and inflammatory.”

According to Amazi, she does not know of other local police departments who have reached out and wrote letters, but she said the incident and governor’s response has fueled much concern for law enforcement.

Amazi believes Dayton should have waited until the investigation is complete before speaking about it.

“Let’s wait until investigators are completed before making statements,” she said.

Minnesota has been at the center of the national debate over how law enforcement treats people of color after Castile’s death in Falcon Heights, a St. Paul suburb.

His girlfriend streamed the gruesome aftermath of his shooting live on Facebook. The 35-year-old school cafeteria supervisor had been shot “for no apparent reason” while reaching for his wallet after telling the officer he had a gun and a permit to carry it, she says in the video.

Dayton quickly responded to the incident.

“Would this have happened if those passengers would have been white? I don’t think it would have,” Dayton said to a crowd that gathered outside his residence all day and night Thursday.

The governor’s remarks have drawn both criticism and praise.

The Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association posted a stinging rebuke of Dayton’s comments, Minnesota Public Radio reported last week. Dennis Flaherty, the group’s executive director, said Dayton’s belief that “the tragic incident in Falcon Heights was motivated by race is the height of political malfeasance that could lead to a miscarriage of justice, if not more violence. Invoking racism without foundation of fact is incendiary.”

But Sen. Jeff Hayden, DFL-Minneapolis, approved of Dayton’s statements, saying racism is an issue typically raised by social justice activists, not governors.

Hayden, one of only three African-Americans currently serving in the Minnesota Legislature, said he was pleased to hear the governor make the statement.

“I praise him for raising the issue for people to have to wrestle with it, and frankly I agree with the governor,” he told MPR. “I think that most people of color, certainly most African-Americans, intuitively felt like the governor was right.”

Read Mower County Sheriff Terese Amazi’s letter to Gov. Mark Dayton here: https://www.austindailyherald.com/?p=673892

—The Associated Press and Minnesota Public Radio contributed to this report.