A white former transit police officer in the western U.S. state of California has been convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the videotaped shooting death of an unarmed black man that triggered protests and rioting last year.

The defendant in the racially charged trial, Johannes Mehserle, 28, testified that he mistakenly drew a pistol instead of his electric Taser weapon and shot Oscar Grant, 22, while attempting to subdue him in Oakland, east of San Francisco. Several witnesses captured the January 2009 encounter on video.

Prosecutors had sought murder charges against Mehserle for shooting Grant while he was face down.

But the jury of four men and eight women believed Mehserle lacked the intent to kill.

The trial was moved to Los Angeles due to concerns that extensive media coverage of the case in the San Francisco area would inflame tensions caused by the killing.

Police in Oakland braced for the possibility of renewed violence following the verdict. Civic leaders have appealed for calm.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger urged state residents not to resort to violence.

At least five bystanders videotaped the New Year's Day incident.

Involuntary manslaughter is punishable by two to four years in prison. The San Francisco Chronicle reported Thursday that Mehserle could also receive three to ten years for using a gun, meaning his sentence could range from five to 14 years. Sentencing is set for August 6.

The racially polarizing case has drawn comparisons to the case of Rodney King, a black man whose vicious beating by a group of white Los Angeles police officers in 1991 was captured on video. In April 1992, four white officers were acquitted by an all-white jury, sparking three days of rioting in Los Angeles that left 53 people dead.

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