FOR PHILANDO CASTILE, SOCIAL MEDIA WAS THE ONLY 911

Diamond Reynolds, the girlfriend of Philando Castile of St. Paul, cries outside the governor's residence in St. Paul, Minn., on Thursday, July 7, 2016. JIM MONE/AP

The spine-chilling video begins with a plea: “Stay with me.”

Diamond Reynolds was begging her boyfriend, Philando Castile, after a police officer fatally shot him following a traffic stop in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, last night. But the desperate request also applied to the nearly 3 million people who eventually tuned in to Reynolds’Facebook Live stream of the moments after the ordeal.

As Reynolds captured the shooting’s aftermath—from Castile’s blood-drenched t-shirt to the officer’s screams to Reynolds’ daughter’s efforts to comfort her mother—the Facebook audience stayed with her, turning Philando Castile into a household name quite literally overnight.

Because what else could they do? What else could she?

Victims of police shootings have no authorities to call, no higher-ups to summon. In these situations, police are witness, assailant, and first responder—all three. Throughout history, that fact has left victims with little recourse. In recent years, social media has changed that dynamic, giving bystanders a way to document these all-too-frequent acts of violence. It’s what happened in the cases of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Walter Scott in Charleston, South Carolina. Just this week, it’s what happened in the case of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

But Reynolds’ live video was different. Not just a documentation of what happened, it was also a real-time cry for help. Unable to call the authorities as she watched her loved one slip away, Reynolds instead called on the public.

As the video begins, Reynolds does not seem to know yet how severe Castile’s injuries are. “He just shot his arm off,” she says, referring to the officer’s shooting of Castile as she narrates the situation for the audience online.

“I told him not to reach for it. I told him to get his hand up,” the officer screams, the video showing his gun still pointed at Castile as the victim fades in and out of consciousness.

“You told him to get his ID, sir, his driver’s license,” Reynolds replies. Then the reality sets in. “Oh my god, please don’t tell me he’s dead.”