Family and friends of the Castile family cross the street to return to their hotel after a not-guilty verdict was read in the trial of St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez at the Ramsey County Courthouse in St. Paul on June 16, 2017. A jury found Yanez was reasonable in his decision to fatally shoot Philando Castile during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights in July 2016. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

A tear runs down the face of Allysza Castile, the sister of Philando Castile, as she talks to the media after a not-guilty verdict in the trial of St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez at the Ramsey County Courthouse in St. Paul on June 16, 2017. A jury found Yanez was reasonable in his decision to fatally shoot Philando Castile during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights in July 2016. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

Philando Castile (Courtesy photo)

Jeronimo Yanez, center, is surrounded by media at the Ramsey County courthouse in St. Paul on Tuesday, May 30, 2017. A jury found Yanez, a St. Anthony police officer, was reasonable in his decision to fatally shoot Philando Castile during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights in July 2016. (Courtesy of KARE 11)

A woman listens a smartphone for information after a not-guilty verdict was read in the trial of St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez at the Ramsey County Courthouse in St. Paul on June 16, 2017. A jury found Yanez was reasonable in his decision to fatally shoot Philando Castile during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights in July 2016. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)



Valerie Castile, the mother of Philando Castile, expresses her anger as she speaks to the media after a not-guilty verdict in the trial of St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez at the Ramsey County Courthouse in St. Paul on June 16, 2017. Yanez was found not guilty in the fatal shooting of Philando Castile during a July 2016 traffic stop in Falcon Heights. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

People react to a not-guilty verdict in the trial of St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez outside the Ramsey County Courthouse in St. Paul on June 16, 2017. A jury found Yanez was reasonable in his decision to fatally shoot Philando Castile during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights in July 2016. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

Glenda Hatchett, an attorney for the Castile family, reacts to a not-guilty verdict in the trial of St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez outside the Ramsey County Courthouse in St. Paul on June 16, 2017. A jury found Yanez was reasonable in his decision to fatally shoot Philando Castile during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights in July 2016. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

A small crowd gathers Friday at the scene in Falcon Height where Philando Castile was shot last July. (Pioneer Press / Molly Guthrey)

The trial came down largely between the word of Diamond Reynolds, the girlfriend of Philando Castile, and Yanez about what Castile was reaching for at the time of the shooting. Reynolds is seen walking into the Ramsey County Courthouse in St. Paul on Tuesday, June 6, 2017, before her second day of testimony. (Dave Orrick / Pioneer Press)



Tyler Clark Edwards of St. Paul raises his fist in the air in front of a large photo of Philando Castile, as protesters encamped in front of the Governor's Residence in St. Paul pack up their belongings July 26, 2016. (Pioneer Press: Scott Takushi)

Jeronimo Yanez’s friends and family embraced while Philando Castile’s supporters cursed and angrily walked out of the courtroom Friday after a jury found the St. Anthony police officer not guilty of manslaughter in Castile’s death.

Yanez’s father and brothers had their arms wrapped around each other’s shoulders as they awaited the verdict. It was read in court just before 3 p.m. after nearly five days of deliberation.

Wearing a dark suit, Yanez, 29, sat between his attorneys as the forms were read.

The Latino officer faced one count of second-degree manslaughter in Castile’s death as well as two counts of dangerous discharge of a firearm in connection with the fatal shooting of the 32-year-old black man during a traffic stop last summer.

Yanez was the first police officer in modern Minnesota history to be charged in an officer-involved shooting.

Defense attorney Earl Gray hugged Yanez’s wife and mother shortly after the verdict was read.

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OTHER REACTION

The reaction contrasted starkly with that of Castile’s family and supporters, also crowded into the Ramsey County District Court courtroom. Some appeared to be praying while others held their head in their hands as they waited for the verdict.

Despite orders from Judge William H. Leary III that no one leave until he adjourned the courtroom, Castile’s mother, Valerie Castile, stood up immediately after the third “not guilty” verdict was read.

She shouted profanity as she walked toward the doors as another supporter wailed. Many of her loved ones followed and were heard crying out in disbelief in the hallway as Leary addressed Yanez for the last time.

“You are excused from this matter with no further obligation to this court,” the judge told him.

Afterwards Dennis Ploussard, a member of the jury, called deliberations “very, very hard.” Ploussard said he thought the panel delivered the right verdict.

The jury was split 10-2 early this week in favor of acquittal for Yanez, he said.

Jurors spent a lot of time dissecting the “culpable negligence” requirement for conviction, he said. The last two holdouts eventually agreed on acquittal for the officer.

Ploussard wouldn’t identify the two holdouts, but said they were not the jury’s only two black members.

Ploussard declined to say whether he thought Yanez acted appropriately. He said the jury sympathizes with the Castile family.

The highly anticipated trial unfolded over three weeks, with testimony lasting five days.

Yanez, among several who took the stand, testified, sometimes through tears, that he had no choice but to shoot Castile after he said he saw Castile gripping his pistol in his front right shorts pocket despite the officer’s orders for him not to reach for the gun.

“I was scared to death. I thought I was going to die,” Yanez told the jury from the witness stand. “My family was popping up in my head. My wife. My baby girl.”

The state argued Castile was trying to access his wallet to hand over the driver’s license Yanez had requested when the officer “jumped to conclusions” and needlessly shot him.

It made no sense that Castile — who was wearing a seat belt while traveling home with his girlfriend and her small child from the grocery store — would choose to grab his gun and shoot the officer after being stopped for a broken taillight, prosecutors said.

State law allows police officers to use deadly force when faced with a threat to themselves or someone else. The officer’s conduct must be in line with what another reasonable officer would do under the same circumstances.

Had Castile only listened to Yanez’s commands, two experts hired for the defense testified in court, Castile would still be alive. But when he went for his gun, they said Yanez was forced to shoot.

RELATED: A summary of witness testimony

‘DOING WHAT HE WAS TRAINED TO DO’

Gray called the jury’s not guilty verdict a “great victory” but chastised the Ramsey County attorney’s office for “kowtowing” to public pressure and filing charges against Yanez in the first place.

“The officer was just doing what he was trained to do,” Gray said.

Yanez could not be immediately reached for comment. Gray said he would not make a public statement.

Speaking on his behalf, he said Yanez was “happy and crying” over the verdict.

“He’s ecstatic,” Gray said, adding that the trial had also taken “a toll” on Yanez.

Following the verdict, the city of St. Anthony announced that Yanez would no longer work there as a police officer. Officials said they would offer Yanez a “voluntary separation” because they had concluded “the public will be best served” if he is no longer an officer on the police force. He had been on paid administrative leave since the shooting.

None of his family members could be immediately reached for comment Friday.

CASTILE FAMILY EXPRESSES OUTRAGE

Valerie Castile told a crowd of reporters and members of the public gathered outside the courthouse Friday afternoon that she was extremely disappointed and angry over the jury’s decision.

“Where in this planet do you tell the truth and you be honest and you still be murdered by the police of Minnesota while you have your seat belt on and you’re in the company with a woman and a child?” she asked. “My son would never jeopardize anyone else’s life by trying to pull a gun on an officer.”

The verdict, she said, was evidence of the “system continu(ing) to fail black people.”

She went on to describe Castile, whom she said had a deep love of Minnesota, evidenced through his only tattoo, which was an outline of his state along with the letters “TC” for Twin Cities.

“My son loved this city and this city killed my son and a murderer gets away,” Valerie Castile continued. “… We’re not evolving as a civilization, we’re devolving. … We’re going back down to 1969. … What is it going to take? I’m mad as hell right now, yes I am. My first-born, one son, dead here in Minnesota.”

An attorney for Castile’s girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, said she was “devastated” by the news and called Yanez’s decision to pull Castile over based on his “wide-set nose” — as he was heard saying to his police partner on a police radio — a classic case of racial profiling.

“In this instance, it ended with the death of an innocent man who was doing nothing wrong,” Larry Rogers said. “That should not happen in America … and (Yanez) got away with it.”

FATAL TRAFFIC STOP LAST SUMMER

Yanez had worked for the St. Anthony Police Department for four years before the shooting. He had no complaints in his personnel file and several of his friends and neighbors testified about his reputation for honesty and hard work in the community.

He is married with one young child and another on the way. His wife, as well as his parents and several of his fellow officers from law enforcement, regularly attended the trial.

The trial drew media from across the country as the case quickly became part of the national conversation about excessive use of police force against black men after Castile’s girlfriend’s video of the shooting’s immediate aftermath went viral.

The footage shows Castile slumped over in his driver’s seat with blood pooling on his white T-shirt as Reynolds tells him “stay with me.”

Yanez pulled Castile over for a broken taillight on July 6 in Falcon Heights after alerting his police partner in another squad car that Castile resembled one of the suspects in a recent armed robbery in the area due to his “wide-set nose.” Falcon Heights had contracted with St. Anthony for police services.

Yanez asked Castile for his driver’s license and proof of insurance at his driver’s-side window before Castile told him, “Sir, I have to tell you, I do have a firearm on me.” (Castile had a permit to carry the gun but never disclosed that to the officer.)

Yanez replied, “OK, don’t reach for it then,” prompting Castile to say, “I’m not reaching for it.”

According to Yanez’s squad car audio and video of the shooting, the officer then twice said, “Don’t pull it out.”

Castile was shot seconds later, making his movements during the seconds preceding the gunfire central to the narratives presented by both the defense and prosecution at trial.

Yanez’s defense team drew attention at trial to THC found in Castile’s system during his autopsy, suggesting it was proof Castile was high during the shooting and was therefore culpable for what happened.

A toxicologist who testified for the state said postmortem blood samples of THC — the active ingredient found in marijuana — can’t accurately depict when a person last ingested marijuana.

ALMOST 30 HOURS OF DELIBERATIONS

The jury received the case after both sides made their closing arguments Monday afternoon. They deliberated for about 30 hours before reaching a verdict. At times, it seemed the case might end in a mistrial, particularly after the jury sent a note to the judge Wednesday afternoon indicating they couldn’t reach a consensus.

The judge quickly sent them back to work after reminding them of their jury instructions. Jurors also requested to review some of the evidence during their deliberations, including the squad car video, which was played several times throughout the trial.

Leary let them watch it in open court but denied their request to get a transcript of the interview Yanez had with state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agents on the day after the shooting.

The state referenced that interview several times throughout the proceedings, pointing to it as evidence of how Yanez had changed his story about the shooting over time.

In his BCA statement, for example, Yanez used words such “something,” “it,” “it appeared like” and “I thought,” to describe what he saw in Castile’s hand before he fired, and never actually said the word “firearm.” Instead, he said things like a “dark object,” and something that necessitated Castile to make a “C-grip.”

On the stand, Yanez unequivocally said he saw a gun in Castile’s hand before he fired seven shots into the car, five of which hit Castile.

The state tried to get the BCA statement introduced into evidence when Yanez was on the stand as a way to impeach him, but the judge denied the request and questioned the state’s timing.

Often prosecutors would introduce such evidence during their portion of the case and some attorneys watching the trial said it was a possible misstep.

CHOI STILLS BELIEVES IN CASE

During a news conference following the verdict, Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said he was proud of his team and still strongly believed in the case.

“Philando Castile did nothing that justified the taking of his life. … He was simply following (officer Yanez’s) commands and orders,” Choi said. “All the facts that came out in this trial, I mean my God, this had to be charged.”

He also took time to speak positively of law enforcement, saying, “This has never been about law enforcement as a whole. … The work they do is so critical.”

Of Yanez, he added, “I also don’t doubt officer Yanez is a decent person … but he made a horrible mistake. I know that if he could, he would take back what he did.”

Choi also asked those who disagreed with the verdict to protest it peacefully.

“As hard as this is for some members of the community, we have to accept this verdict,” he said.

Allysza Castile, Philando’s 24-year-old sister, also spoke after the verdict. Though she hasn’t spoken out much in the past, she said she felt compelled to speak Friday. She directed some of her words toward Yanez.

“He took away something so precious … that was my brother, that was my mentor, that was my father figure. … He didn’t deserve to die.”

She also called out the jurors, saying they lacked “empathy” and “a conscience to do the right.”

“(It) just baffles me,” she said of the jury’s decision to believe Yanez’s story that Castile had grabbed for his gun. “I know my brother. My brother would never, ever put Diamond in danger or Dae’Anna in danger because he loved that little girl and he loved this state.”

Jurors on the case included five men and seven women. Two of the jurors were black. None was Latino.

Evidence in the case, including the squad car video that captured the shooting, may be released within the next week.

Frederick Melo and Sarah Chavey contributed to this story.

This story contains information from the Associated Press.