Officer acquitted in shooting of black teen
A former police officer in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was acquitted Friday on all counts in connection with the shooting death of a black teenager who fled during a traffic stop last summer.
The verdict in the death of Antwon Rose II came after a four-day trial in downtown Pittsburgh and less than four hours of jury deliberation. The city had been concerned about protests and had cordoned off streets around the massive, gothic Allegheny County Courthouse during the trial.
A video that recorded the fatal shooting was widely viewed on the internet, and it led to days of protests in Pittsburgh and drew widespread attention as another example of the killing of an unarmed black man by a police officer.
The officer, Michael Rosfeld, who is white, had been charged with homicide in the shooting death of Antwon, a 17-year-old African-American, on the night of June 19. Prosecutors charged Rosfeld with an open count of homicide, meaning the jury could have convicted him of murder or manslaughter.
Antwon, who was unarmed, ran after Rosfeld pulled over the car he was riding in with another teenager. The car, a Chevrolet Cruze, matched the description of one involved in a nearby drive-by shooting about 10 minutes earlier.
Rosfeld shot Antwon, a passenger, three times — in his back, face and elbow.
Prosecutors say Rosfeld, 30, gave inconsistent statements about the shooting, including whether he thought Antwon had a gun.
On Thursday, Rosfeld testified in his own defense for 90 minutes. “It happened very quickly,” he said. “My intent was to end the threat that was made against me.”
He said on the stand that he thought he saw one of the two teenagers who ran from the car point a gun at him. He said he didn’t know which teenager made the motion.
“I hope everyone takes a deep breath and gets on with their lives,” Patrick Thomassey, Rosfeld’s lawyer, said after the verdict.
S. Lee Merritt, a lawyer for Antwon’s family, condemned the verdict in a tweet. “A Pennsylvania jury just concluded shooting an unarmed black child in the back as he ran away is not murder, it’s not even criminal,” he said. “I will never be able to make peace with that. Everything has to change.”
Jurors, who watched the video of the fatal confrontation, got the case just before 5 p.m. Friday and returned a verdict about 8:30 p.m.
The jurors were chosen at a courthouse in Harrisburg, the state capital, about 200 miles east. They were sequestered all week in Pittsburgh.
Rosfeld had been on the East Pittsburgh police force for about three weeks and had been officially sworn in just hours before the shooting.
Previously, he had been a member of the University of Pittsburgh police force, but left the job after discrepancies were found between one of his sworn statements and evidence in an arrest, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has reported.