The man says the officer was "panicking."
Witnesses claim a Pennsylvania p*olice o*fficer became emotional and panicky after he sh*ot 17-year-old Antwon Rose Jr.
O*fficer Michael Rosfield f*atally sh*ot the una*rmed teen after he attempted to flee after a traffic stop, according to CBS News.
An unlicensed taxi he was riding in was cited in a drive-by sh*ooting. The g*unman, Zaijuan Hester, sh*ot at two men from the backseat as Rose sat in the front. Hester was forthcoming about his involvement and said Rose did not sh*oot anyone.
Rosfield was ch*arged with c*riminal h*omicide, and his t*rial began on Tuesday, reports KDKA.
Resident John Leach testified he "couldn't believe his eyes" when he saw the sh*ooting from his front porch. He said Rosfield was also in a state of disbelief.
Leach claimed Rosfield kept repeating, “I don’t know why I sh*ot him. I don’t know why I f*ired. I don’t know why I sh*ot” and appeared to be “panicking.”
Leach told the c*ourt Rose had at least one of his hands raised when he was sh*ot.
“He put his right hand up close to his face,” Leach said. “I thought he was putting his hands up. He looked in both directions and then took off running.”
Rosfield’s defense a*ttorney a*ccused Leach of giving a different account to p*olice and said the view from his porch was obstructed.
“You didn’t say he put his hands up,” defense a*ttorney Patrick Thomassey said. “You said he made a motion with his hand.”
Debra Jones, another neighbor, said Rosfield was emotional after the sh*ooting.
She said he began to f*ire as soon as Rose started to run. Jones said she did not see anything in Rose’s hands.
“Automatically,” she said. “Three sh*ots. B*oom, b*oom, b*oom.”
The t*rial is expected to last for more than a week. On the first day, Michelle Kenney, Rose’s mother, wrote a letter urging the p*rosecution to f*ight for her son’s honor.
“I know you have a strategy to obtain a conviction,” Kenney wrote. “I don’t know anything about t*rial strategy, but I know it is important that the j*ury has a chance to hear about who my son was. They deserve to know the real him. The defense has tried to make him out to be ‘just another th*ug,’ but please let the j*ury know who he really was.”
READ ALSO
Former officer Michael Rosfeld found not g*uilty in d*eath of Antwon Rose
It took less than four hours.
They considered the testimony of 23 witnesses, hundreds of exhibits and the 0.944th of a second the p*olice o*fficer needed to get off three sh*ots.
Then the j*ury of seven men and five women concluded that former East Pittsburgh p*olice O*fficer Michael Rosfeld was not g*uilty in the k*illing of Antwon Rose II.
The j*urors returned to the c*ourtroom at 9:03 p.m. Friday after four days of t*rial. The two alternate j*urors, who did not participate in deliberations, were already seated at the front of the c*ourtroom, waiting anxiously.
The foreman, a 71-year-old black man who spent his career as a woodshop and gym teacher, read the verdict, hesitating at each count:
“First-degree m*urder — not g*uilty.”
“Third-degree m*urder — not g*uilty.”
“Voluntary mans*laughter — not g*uilty.”
And finally, a longer pause, “Involuntary mans*laughter — not g*uilty.”
Mr. Rosfeld g*rabbed the hand of the i*nvestigator next to him, while his wife, seated in the front row of the c*ourtroom, began to weep.
Antwon’s mother, Michelle Kenney, did not visibly react to the v*erdict. She told her daughter not to cry.
“Michelle is upset. She’s angry. She is not broken,” said S. Lee Merritt, a civil rights a*ttorney who represents her. “It is not over, and she will continue to f*ight for her son.”
Mr. Rosfeld was a*ccused of k*illing Antwon following a f*elony t*raffic stop on Grandview Avenue in East Pittsburgh about 8:40 p.m. June 19.
His t*rial began Tuesday morning, concluding with closing arguments Friday afternoon. J*urors then had to decide whether Mr. Rosfeld was justified when he k*illed Antwon, who 13 minutes earlier had been in a car during a drive-by sh*ooting in North Braddock.
“I don’t have any question in my mind it was the proper v*erdict,” said Patrick Thomassey, a*ttorney for Mr. Rosfeld. “I give this j*ury a lot of credit.
This was a very hard c*ase. I will point out to you this was not an all-white j*ury. There were African-Americans on this j*ury. They listened to the facts. They listened to the l*aw.”
The j*urors, some already wearing their coats, were escorted from the c*ourtroom at 9:10 p.m., and a few moments later, Mr. Rosfeld and his wife were rushed out by deputies shouting, “Go, go, go, go.”
About four hours earlier, at 4:38 p.m., the j*ury received the case, with the options of a not g*uilty v*erdict, or g*uilty of first-degree and third-degree m*urder, as well as the lesser ch*arges of voluntary and involuntary mans*laughter as part of their deliberations.
As they returned to the c*ourtroom to hear the v*erdict, supporters of Antwon’s family were pessimistic.
“The v*erdict was too fast,” said Antwon’s aunt, Carolyn Morrison of Rankin.
“The t*rial was too fast. The v*erdict was too fast. It was all too fast.”
Under Pennsylvania l*aw, p*olice o*fficers are justified in using f*orce when they believes it is necessary to prevent d*eath or serious i*njury to themselves or others, or if they believe it necessary to prevent a s*uspect’s e*scape from a*rrest. That s*uspect, the l*aw continues, must have committed or attempted to commit a f*orcible f*elony and pose a d*anger to human life.
Following the v*erdict, Mr. Merritt criticized that l*aw and said it is not acceptable for a p*olice o*fficer to sh*oot someone in the back if the o*fficer s*uspects that person is fleeing a f*elony and intends to h*arm others.
“The ch*arges the j*ury received today and deliberated on made it seem OK to sh*oot an una*rmed fleeing s*uspect in the back.”
He said the v*erdict was not unexpected.
“It is incredibly difficult to get a p*olice o*fficer held accountable anywhere in the United States.”
Reggie Shuford, executive director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, also called for changes in Pennsylvania l*aw to f*orce p*olice departments to release their use-of-f*orce policies.
He said the organization’s “hearts a*che” for Antwon’s family and friends.
“Pennsylvania allows departments to hide information about p*olice o*perations, including c*ops who repeatedly v*iolate the rules or the l*aw,” he said. “Pennsylvania even allows p*olice departments to hide policies on use of f*orce when other states have l*aws making the same information public. The public is denied access to p*olice video recordings. There can and must be more transparency around p*olice operations.”
He also called for independent p*rosecutors to handle p*olice sh*ooting cases, because local p*rosecutors often have close ties with p*olice o*fficers.
District A*ttorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said in a statement late Friday that he stood by his decision to file the ch*arge against Mr. Rosfeld.
“While I respectfully disagree with their v*erdict, it is the people of this commonwealth who decide g*uilty or not g*uilty and they have spoken to this matter,” he said. “In the interest of justice, we must continue to do our job of bringing ch*arges in situations where ch*arges are appropriate, regardless of the role an individual holds in the community.”
The v*erdict brought to a conclusion the contentious case that had divided the region for nine months. But it did not end the c*ontroversy.
Minutes after the v*erdict became known, a crowd gathered on the steps of the c*ourthouse.
They began singing, “What side are you on, my people?”
The response: “The freedom side.”
As Mr. Thomassey addressed the media after the v*erdict, the sound of p*rotesters chanting and a p*olice dog barking could be heard in the distance.
“I hope everyone takes a deep breath and gets on with their lives,” Mr. Thomassey said.
“I’m going to say this right now, this case had nothing to do with race, absolutely nothing to do with race,” said Mr. Thomassey, immediately after the v*erdict. “Some people in the city made it that way, and it’s sad. Mike Rosfeld was doing his job, he did his job, and [it had] nothing to do with the color of anybody he was a*rresting.”