18 protesters arrested after Philando Castile court decision

Castile's fatal shooting was among several cases around the USA past year where law enforcement officers were found to have killed blacks.

St. Anthony Police Department officer Jeronimo Yanez, 29, was found not guilty of all three charges he faced in the death of 32-year-old Philando Castile: second-degree manslaughter and two felony counts of intentional discharge of a risky weapon for endangering the safety of Castile's girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, and her four-year-old daughter.

Despite the acquittal, the city of St. Anthony announced that Yanez would be dismissed.

St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez was acquitted of manslaughter and other charges in the fatal shooting last summer of Philando Castile during a traffic stop.

Yanez was found not guilty for the July shooting of Castile, a 32-year-old black school cafeteria worker.

The defense argued Castile was unable to heed the officer's instructions because he was allegedly under the influence of marijuana.

After the shooting, Yanez's body microphone captured audio of him saying first that he didn't know where the gun was, but then that he told Castile to take his hand off the gun.

It was the fifth day of deliberations in Officer Jeronimo Yanez's manslaughter trial in the death of Philando Castile. The shooting received national attention when Castile's girlfriend live streamed the moments after on Facebook Live.

Rosario Dawson and Megan Mullally are among the outraged stars venting their frustrations on social media after the police officer who shot and killed Philando Castile in July, 2016, was acquitted by a jury.

The verdict was read in front of a packed courtroom, which consisted of Castile's family.

She said the verdict shows "the system continues to fail black people".

In a statement, a Minnesota State Patrol spokeswoman said the protesters were charged with unlawful assembly, among other things, after they declined repeated demands from police to vacate the roadway.

Taylor, whose four-year-old daughter was in the backseat, said Castile told the officer: "Sir, I have to tell you, I do have a firearm on me".

The 12 jurors that deliberated Yanez's case included two black people.

He would not identify the two early holdouts, but said they were not the jurys only two black members. The rest were white.

Yanez, who is Latino, pulled Castile over for a broken tail light July 6 in Falcon Heights, after alerting his police partner in another squad auto that Castile resembled one of the suspects in a recent armed robbery, due to his "wide-set nose". Yanez shot Castile five times.

The evidence included squad vehicle video, but its wide view didn't capture exactly what happened inside the auto. Paulsen questioned Kauser at length about police procedure, what he saw during the stop, and how the shooting took him by surprise.

"Like I said, because this happened with Philando, and when they get done with us, they are coming for you and all your interracial children". Then Philando reached for his wallet, and while he did so, Jeronimo shot at him seven times. He also faced two felony counts of intentional discharge of a unsafe weapon over allegedly endangering Castile's girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, and her daughter. "As people across our city, county and country react to the jury's verdict, I urge each of us to move forward in a way that is peaceful and respectful of everyone - residents, demonstrators and police officers alike", he said. Hundreds blocked the I-94 freeway past year after Castile's death was first reported.

December 23: Defense attorneys remove the first judge assigned to oversee Yanez's case, Judge Edward Wilson.