Pennsylvania officer faces homicide charge in black teen’s shooting

(Reuters) - Pennsylvania prosecutors yesterday charged an East Pittsburgh police officer with homicide in the shooting death last week of an unarmed black teenager, the latest in a string of U.S. police killings of black men that has sparked nationwide protests.

Officer Michael Rosfeld, 30, surrendered to face a single criminal count for killing 17-year-old Antwon Rose on June 19 as the officer was searching for suspects after a drive-by shooting that wounded one. Authorities have not specified the type of homicide charge that Rosfeld will face.

Video of the incident, showing two men running from a car that was stopped by police and falling to the ground amid the sound of gunfire, sparked several nights of protests around Pittsburgh.

A series of police killings of black men in U.S. cities in recent years has fueled a national debate about racial bias in the criminal justice system.

Also on Wednesday, a white police officer in Kingsland, Georgia was arrested and will face voluntary manslaughter and other charges related to the June 21 fatal shooting of a black man fleeing after a traffic stop.

Zechariah Presley turned himself in and will face charges in the death of Tony Green, 33, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said on Twitter.

Black clergy and the NAACP have held prayer vigils and protests since the shooting occurred, local media reported. Kingsland is about 35 miles north of Jacksonville, Florida.

Few of the officers who have faced charges for the killings have been convicted. U.S. laws give police broad powers to use deadly force when they believe their lives or the lives of others are in danger.

The fatal shooting in East Pittsburgh occurred after Rosfeld and other officers stopped a car while investigating the drive-by shooting. Prosecutors said Rosfeld first told them he saw a person emerge from the car with a “foreign object,” but later admitted he did not see a weapon.