A white former police officer was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in a videotaped shooting death of an unarmed black man last year in Oakland, California, sparking disorder in the city yesterday.
The verdict prompted a peaceful protest by about 1,000 people in downtown Oakland, which by night gave way to looting and property damage, with some people throwing powerful fireworks at police and lighting fires. Local media said police had made about 50 arrests.
A Los Angeles jury deliberated for about six hours over two days before reaching their decision about the shooting on a train platform in Oakland, indicating they deemed it a tragic accident rather than the intentional act of a rogue cop.
The defendant in the racially charged trial, Johannes Mehserle (28), testified that he mistakenly drew his gun instead of his electric Taser and shot Oscar Grant (22) while trying to subdue him during a confrontation on New Year's Day 2009.
But prosecutors, who sought a conviction for second-degree murder, said Mehserle had "lost all control" and shot Mr Grant on purpose because he thought Mr Grant was resisting arrest.
Jurors can render an involuntary manslaughter conviction if they believe the defendant lacked an intent to kill but engaged in conduct so grossly negligent that it amounts to a crime.
It generally carries a sentence of two to four years in prison, but the jury also accepted a sentencing "enhancement" for Mehserle's use of a handgun in the commission of a crime.
"We are outraged that the jury did not find guilty of murder in a case that is so egregiously excessive and mishandled," said Benjamin Todd Jealous, head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Mehserle, who had been free on $3 million bail, showed no reaction as the verdict was read and was taken into custody. The former police officer for the Bay Area Rapid Transit rail system faces sentencing on August 6th.
Relatives of Grant, a young father who worked as a grocery store butcher, reacted with outrage. "My son was murdered, and the law hasn't held the officer accountable the way he should be," his mother, Wanda Johnson, shouted outside the courthouse.
About 1,000 people gathered in a peaceful protest in downtown Oakland yesterday evening, and a huge banner strung on a traffic light pole read "Oakland says Guilty."
Reuters