Death of teen sparks protests
NEW YORK: The fatal shooting of an unarmed teenager who was attempting to flee by an East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania police officer prompted more protests on Thursday and calls for answers from law enforcement officials.
The teenager, Antwon Rose II, 17, was a passenger in a car that had been pulled over because it matched the description of a vehicle that had fled an earlier shooting in which a 22-year-old man was wounded, the Allegheny County Police Department said.
A video recording of the shooting on Tuesday night and was posted on Facebook shows two people running from police vehicles as three shots are fired. One of the people, later identified as Antwon, appears to fall to the ground.
Authorities confirmed on Thursday that Antwon was struck three times but did not specify where.
“Why are they shooting?” the woman recording the video says. “All they did was run and they’re shooting at them!”
The Allegheny County Police Department, which is investigating the encounter, said two firearms were found on the floor of the car. When asked if the 17-year-old was found with a weapon on him, Coleman McDonough, the department’s superintendent, said he was not.
On Thursday, Mike Manko, a spokesman for the Allegheny County district attorney’s office, confirmed reports that Antwon, while unarmed, had an empty clip of a handgun in his pants pocket at the time he was shot.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Wednesday quoted Mayor Louis Payne of East Pittsburgh — a borough in Allegheny County — as saying that the officer who shot Antwon was hired in mid-May and had formally sworn in only hours before the shooting.
Mr Payne told Action News 4 on Thursday that he believed the shooting was the first time in at least 20 years that an East Pittsburgh officer had opened fire on a suspect.
In a statements on Thursday, authorities identified the East Pittsburgh officer who fired as Michael H Rosfeld.
Attempts to reach Mr Rosfeld, 30, by phone were unsuccessful. The law firm of Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman and Goggin confirmed it was representing the officer, but a lawyer for the firm did not immediately return requests for comments on Thursday night.
Officials said Mr Rosfeld worked for the Oakmont Borough Police Department, about 24kms northeast of Pittsburgh, as a part-time patrol officer from 2011 to 2013. Jason Domaratz, the police chief in Harmar Township, said Mr Rosfeld joined the Harmar Township in February 2012 as a part-time officer. Mr Rosfeld stayed there for less than a year before accepting a full-time position with the University of Pittsburgh’s Police Department.