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(07-08) 14:59 PDT LOS ANGELES -- Jurors have reached a verdict in the murder trial of former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle, who shot and killed unarmed train passenger Oscar Grant on Jan. 1, 2009. The verdict is scheduled to be read in Judge Robert Perry's downtown Los Angeles courtroom at about 4 p.m. today, said a source with knowledge of the matter. Jurors were given four options during deliberations. They could convict Mehserle, 28, of second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter or involuntary manslaughter, or they could acquit him. The panel began deliberations Friday, but had to start from scratch Wednesday...

<p>Oakland (CNN) -- A verdict has been reached in the trial of a former police officer who is white and who is accused of killing an unarmed black man in Oakland, California, according to a superior court spokesman. The verdict will be read at 4 p.m. (7 p.m. ET).</p>

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A white former transit officer was convicted of involuntary manslaughter Thursday in the shooting death of an unarmed black man on an Oakland train platform in a 2009 encounter that set off days of rioting in the city. The jury deliberated more than six hours over two days to convict Johannes Mehserle in the killing of 22-year-old Oscar Grant, who was shot to death as he lay face-down.

It was an exodus just a few ticks short of panic. As word spread throughout Oakland around 2:30 p.m. that a verdict had been reached in the Johannes Mehserle murder trial, the downtown streets suddenly flooded with workers rushing out of their workplaces to go home. The normally placid lanes became clogged, people hurried along the sidewalk, and there was an almost electric air of worried anticipation. BART trains streaming in and out of downtown were jammed. At the downtown federal building, announcements were made over loudspeakers to tell everyone to go home. At many of the big businesses throughout...

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- Oakland police say people have broken into an athletic store near the city's downtown as hundreds of people protest the verdict in the case of a former transit officer. Johannes Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter on Thursday in Los Angeles in the videotaped shooting death of an unarmed black man on an Oakland train platform.

An involuntary manslaughter verdict against a white former transit cop who killed an unarmed black man was met with protests that erupted in violence Thursday night in Oakland, Calif. The trial over the shooting took place in Los Angeles, where prosecutors had pressed for a murder conviction in the New Year's Day 2009 Oakland train-station killing that was recorded on video.

As the verdict reached the streets, hundreds converged in downtown Oakland for mostly peaceful protests before swelling to a crowd of more than a thousand, with a hard-core splinter group of rioters clashing with police and wreaking havoc in downtown. By late evening, hundreds of law enforcement officers from across the Bay Area had descended downtown to help local police quell the protesters. Wearing black masks, many looted stores, smashed windows and rolled trash bins into the streets while setting them on fire. At one point, protesters began throwing M-1000 fireworks at law enforcement officers and other demonstrators. Stephen Allen,...

On January 1st 2009 Officer Johannes Mehserle shot Oscar Grant in the back after he was already handcuffed and on the ground. Today they announced that officer Mehserle was guilty of "involuntary manslaughter, not murder. After hours of peaceful protesting the energy and frustration of the crowd became too intense to express in words. In this video you can see some windows being smashed and people looting a Foot Locker. This is a rough cut. More video to come.

The jury has found former BART officer Johannes Mesherle guilty of involuntary manslaughter. Mehserle was accused of murdering an unarmed man, Oscar Grant, on a BART platform on New Year's Day 2009. Four years in state prison is the maximum sentence Mehserle can receive.