A white Cleveland police officer, charged with voluntary manslaughter in the shooting deaths of two unarmed African Americans in 2012, has been found not guilty.

The verdict in the case of Officer Michael Brelo, 31, was read at 10 a.m. Saturday in the Cuyahoga County court.

The judge said the decision to use deadly force was reasonably justifiable, according to local media.

Protesters gathered outside the courtroom as the judge announced the verdict.

Saturday's verdict comes after four weeks of testimony in Brelo's trial in the deaths of 43-year-old Timothy Russell and 30-year-old Malissa Wiliiams in November 2012.

Thirteen officers fired a total of 137 times at the pair’s car after a high-speed chase, but only Brelo was charged because prosecutors said he fired 15 rounds even when the vehicle had stopped and the occupants were no longer a threat.

Brelo stood on the hood of the car and shot down through the windshield.

What prompted the chase, according to prosecutors, was when the car driven by Russell backfired, a noise that officers mistook for gunshots.

More than 60 police cars pursued the vehicle for 20 miles in a 25-minute chase spanning three cities.

When police finally checked the car, they realized neither Williams nor Russell was armed.

Williams and Russell were each shot more than 20 times.

The Ohio attorney general released a report last year saying the incident highlighted the “systemic failure in the Cleveland Police Department.”

The deaths of other African-Americans at the hands of police or while in police custody over the past year--in Ferguson, New York City, Baltimore as well as Cleveland--have caused mass protests in American cities.

HRJ/HRJ