POLICE OFFICER CONVICTED IN CALIFORNIA SUBWAY SHOOTING
Baku, July 9 (AZERTAC). A former police officer for a California subway system has been found guilty of shooting dead an unarmed passenger last year.
Johannes Mehserle was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
He shot Oscar Grant in the back in Oakland, California, on 1 January 2009, while attempting to subdue him following a fight.
Mehserle told the Los Angeles court that he had mistaken the pistol for an electric Taser weapon on his belt.
The incident, recorded by onlookers on their mobile phones, sparked a period of violence in Oakland, a city on San Francisco Bay.
The trial was moved to Los Angeles because of the tensions in Oakland.
Speaking after the jury`s finding, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called on state residents "to remain calm in light of the verdict and not to resort to violence".
Mehserle, 28, faces years in prison. He will be sentenced next month.
He resigned from the 200-member Bay Area Rapid Transit (Bart) police force soon after the shooting.
The Bart system serves cities in the San Francisco Bay area.
On the night of the shooting, police officers identified Grant, a 22-year-old African-American man, as a participant in a fight on a train.
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