LOS ANGELES — A jury found a former San Francisco Bay area transit officer guilty of *********** manslaughter in the shooting death of an unarmed black man on an Oakland train platform.
The eight-woman, four-man panel read the verdict at 4 p.m. PDT Thursday after deliberating for more than six hours over two days.
Johannes Mehserle was found guilty on Thursday in the New Year's Day 2009 ******* of 22-year-old Oscar Grant. *********** manslaughter carries a sentence of two to four years.
At least five bystanders videotaped the incident -- one of the most racially polarizing cases in California since four Los Angeles officers were acquitted in 1992 in the beating of Rodney King.
Prosecutors said the 28-year-old Mehserle became angry at Grant for resisting arrest. Mehserle claims he mistakenly drew his *** instead of his Taser.
The trial was moved to Los Angeles after racial tensions boiled over into ******** in Oakland.
Police in Oakland expected protests after the verdict and prepared by getting crowd-control training and working 12-hour shifts. A group of activists planned a rally outside City Hall.
