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Activists Demonstrate In Pittsburgh After Unarmed Black Teen Was Fatally Shot In Back By Police While Fleeing A Traffic Stop

Source: Justin Merriman / Getty

UPDATE: JUNE 27, 2018, 9:40 A.M. ET – An East Pittsburgh police officer has been charged with homicide in the murder of Antwon Rose. According to NPR, Michael Rosfeld, 30, has been on administrative leave since the shooting and was charged on Wednesday, court documents show.


An investigation is underway and residents are outraged after 17-year-old Antwon Rose Jr. was fatally shot by police in East Pittsburgh on Tuesday night. According to The Washington Post, the shooting occurred amid a police investigation of a drive-by shooting near the area. Rose was inside a silver Chevrolet Cruze—the same vehicle described by a witness as the one involved in the shooting.

An East Pittsburg Police Department officer killed Rose around 8:40 p.m. when the officer stopped the car, prompting Rose and another male to flee. The officer then fired three rounds and struck Rose “several” times, as reported by The Post. Rose was unarmed at the time of his death, though authorities say two firearms were recovered from the vehicle.

While police department has declined to disclose details about the officer, it was reported that he was sworn in as an officer with that department just 90 minutes before the shooting occurred. According to local news station KDKA, he was employed by three other police departments in the years since 2011.

“Officers who are moved around that often are troubled officers,” family attorney S. Lee Merritt told The Post on Thursday.

On Wednesday, activists gathered outside the East Pittsburgh Police Department around 6 p.m. to protest and demand answers regarding Rose’s death.

“If we don’t do it, ain’t nobody else out here going to do it for us,” 18-year-old Anyah Jackson told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “We’re not just going to let these people be out here murdering our children.”

According to The Post’s database that tracks police shootings, at least 491 people have been shot and killed by cops so far in 2018. At least 90 (18 percent) of those fatally shot were Black. The Post adds that Black folks have been the victims in 23 percent of fatal police shootings since January 2015, which is when it began tracking police shootings.

Rose is reportedly the only person to be killed by an East Pittsburgh Police Department officer since 2015.