ST. PAUL — A jury was seated Monday in the trial of a Minnesota police officer charged in the shooting death of a black motorist after defense attorneys unsuccessfully tried to block one of two black jurors in the final group.

Opening statements were to follow in the trial of St. Anthony police Officer Jeronimo Yanez in the death of 32-year-old Philando Castile. Prosecutors say Yanez, who is Latino, shot Castile during a traffic stop in a St. Paul suburb last July after Castile told the officer that he was carrying a gun.

Prosecutors have said Yanez’s actions weren’t reasonable, while Yanez’s attorneys have said he feared for his life. The shooting captured national attention in part because Castile’s girlfriend was in the car with her daughter and streamed the shooting’s aftermath live on Facebook.

The jury is made up of 15 people, three of whom are alternates, though it’s not clear who the alternates are. Two jurors are black, including an 18-year-old Ethiopian-American woman whom defense attorney Earl Gray had argued didn’t understand the criminal justice system well enough to follow the proceedings.

The woman has been in the country about 10 years, and prosecutor Jeff Paulsen said Yanez’s attorneys wanted to block the woman because of her race. Judge William Leary III rejected the defense challenge.

A young black man who manages a Wendy’s restaurant is also on the panel.

Black representation in the group of 15 roughly matches the black population of Ramsey County, which includes St. Paul and several suburbs.

The death of Castile, an elementary school cafeteria worker, was among a string of killings of blacks by police around the U.S. and it renewed concerns about how officers interact with minorities. Castile’s family claimed the elementary cafeteria worker was profiled because of his race. Minnesota Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton also injected his viewpoint, saying police likely wouldn’t have fired if Castile had been white.

Castile had a permit to carry his handgun, and the issue may come up at trial after the judge ruled Monday that the jury can hear about it. Defense attorneys have said that if prosecutors bring up Castile’s permit, they can argue that he obtained it illegally in 2016 because he was a marijuana user at the time. Minnesota’s gun permit application requires applicants to state they don’t use illegal drugs.

The jury will also be able to hear that Castile had THC — the component in marijuana that produces a high — in his system when he was shot. Defense attorneys argued in pretrial hearings that Castile was stoned and that it affected his behavior during the traffic stop.

Jurors also are expected to hear testimony from Yanez.