First, what’s unclear: If District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. will decide to officially press criminal charges against East Pittsburgh police Officer Michael Rosfeld.
Now, to what is clear: Pittsburgh-area residents will continue to stage protests, call for charges to be filed against the officer in question, and fight for justice, fight for a 17-year-old Black teenager who no longer can fight for himself.
Antwon Rose II’s body was laid to rest on Monday, June 25, after a funeral service with so many in attendance it had to be held at Woodland Hills Intermediate School. Those in attendance, of all ages, remembered Rose’s smile, his laugh, his athletic talents, his desire to “make it.”
“Beautiful,” is how Missy Carter, Rose’s cousin, described the funeral service. “And he deserved it.”
Carter added: “He was a good person, a good student, loved his family, as we loved him.”
“He was a very good person,” said his aunt, Karen Keyes, “and his life should not have been taken like it was.”
In the days leading up to Monday’s funeral service, dark clouds and treacherous rain showers flooded the Pittsburgh region. After all, it was a gloomy week—news of an officer-involved shooting in East Pittsburgh on the evening of June 19 was the rumor, but the video posted to Facebook of an officer firing three times at an unarmed Black teenager who was running away from the officer turned rumor into reality.
It turned Pittsburgh upside down.
The following day, protesters congregated outside East Pittsburgh police headquarters, making their way onto Electric Avenue, then heading down to the Tri-Boro Expressway, blocking the intersection so that cars on both sides of the expressway had to come to a halt.
Police—numbering upwards of 50 in uniform, some with guns in hand—did nothing to stop the protests. But then again, what could they do? In the eyes of many protesters, the police already did the damage—taking Antwon Rose II’s life, for reasons still unexplained by authorities.
“Police, the biggest terrorist group, are going to keep on killing us if we don’t stand up for ourselves,” said Taylor Williams, a 2013 Woodland Hills High School graduate, the same school Rose attended. “I have nephews. I have young Black men in the community that I care about that can be killed, and the cop can get a paid leave. We are sick of being targeted by the color of our skin.”
Williams continued: “I tell my nephew whenever the police come in contact with him, put your hands up whether you are right or wrong. You shouldn’t have to teach your nephew that’s 11 years old that. These people are supposed to be here to protect and serve….We are modern-day slaves. We are nothing but walking target practice for them. We are sick of being executed by police, and that young man (Rose) was simply executed.”
The June 20 protest lasted roughly three hours and blocked the Tri-Boro Expressway for the same period of time.
That was only the start.
Thursday, June 21 brought another round of protests, beginning at noon in front of the Allegheny County Courthouse. Among those who graced the microphone was Leon Ford, the Black male who was shot five times by Pittsburgh police Officer David Derbish in November 2012 during a traffic stop in Highland Park.
“Like I told Miss Michelle (Kenney, mother of Antwon Rose II), her son is not going to die in vain. He’s not,” said Ford. “We talk about justice. The restoration of balance. Well, even if you put the officer that shot me…in a wheelchair, I still am not going to receive justice, because there’s no way to restore the balance in my life, in my mom’s life. There’s no way to restore balance in Miss Michelle’s life. We can move closer to justice. But justice is really an illusion. We gotta hold these people accountable.”
Later that evening, another rally was underway again in East Pittsburgh, but this time, it ended, of all places, on the Parkway East.
Not seen in Pittsburgh since anyone can remember, more than 100 protesters stopping the Steel City in its tracks, all in the name of Antwon Rose II. Big-rig trucks hit the brakes. Cars that tried to use an exit ramp soon found protesters blocking that path, as well.
Pittsburgh had become the talk of the country, and for all the wrong reasons. Anger and frustration built up so much over the police killing of Rose that people walked three miles from East Pittsburgh, then to Ardmore Blvd., climbed over highway guardrails, and took over the heavily-traveled Parkway East, just to make the point—police officers shooting and killing unarmed Black men will not be accepted nor tolerated.
“A whole entire child’s family is inconvenienced because they’ll never see their child again. Next time they see him, he’s going to be in a casket…and you’re probably on your way home to your kids, on your way home to your house, and you don’t have to worry about being alive and you don’t have to worry about your child being home when you get there,” said Nia Arrington, in an exclusive interview with the New Pittsburgh Courier. Her comments were in response to some who expressed on social media that blocking a highway or traffic was the wrong way to protest.
“Your slight inconvenience isn’t worth a human life that was taken.”
Protesters blocked the parkway for more than five hours, and didn’t leave the parkway until just before 2:30 a.m., when police came in riot gear, threatening to take the protesters away in handcuffs. Only one person was arrested.
Friday, June 22 was a scheduled Fireworks Night at PNC Park, following the baseball game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Arizona Diamondbacks. But protesters didn’t need the services of Zambelli. Hundreds of Antwon Rose II supporters flooded the Roberto Clemente Bridge just moments before the 7 p.m. game-time start, then blocked certain North Shore streets just as the Pirates game was ending. This caused some tense moments between Pirates fans and protesters, while other Pirates fans seemed to side with the protesters. Chants of “Three shots to the back, how do you justify that” boomed from the protesters’ voices just as loud as the explosive fireworks from the Allegheny River. A person driving a black Mercedes Benz drove through the protesters, who then chased the vehicle, pelting it with rocks, fists, whatever they had, whatever they could find. The vehicle got away. Authorities are still trying to locate that vehicle. No injuries were reported.
Some miles away in Homestead, more protesters had attempted to take over the Homestead Grays Bridge, but were met with opposition from local police. One man was arrested.
Another protest occurred Saturday night, June 23, along Carson St. on the South Side. It remained peaceful, as the rain continued to pour on the protesters.
No protests were held on Sunday, June 24, or Monday, June 25. Monday was the homegoing service, a day in which there was not a drop of rain—only sunshine filled the Pittsburgh skies.
“A celebration, that’s how we do, we celebrate our lives,” Carter told the Courier moments after the service. “And we’re going to continue to celebrate Antwon Michael Rose Jr.”
“Young Antwon, his spirit, his soul, is going to resonate throughout the city, and be around all of us for the rest of our lives,” Ayodeji Young told the Courier. Young is known in Pittsburgh for mentoring Black male youth. “It’s up to us to keep his mission alive.”
“What happened today, we can’t keep congregating together to come together for tragedy, this has to change,” said Leonard Hammonds II of Hammonds Initiative, a Penn Hills-based organization that mentors young Black males. “We have to change the narrative. We have to show that Black men are not the stereotypes that they perceive us to be. This young man (Rose) was an extraordinary young man, he was a gifted student, he was brilliant, he was able to play instruments, he was able to ski, he was able to surf, he was able to enjoy all these great things in life, but yet they want to brand him as a criminal, something that he isn’t.”
Officer Rosfeld originally pulled over the Chevrolet Cruze vehicle in East Pittsburgh because it matched the description of a vehicle that possibly was involved in a shooting just moments prior in North Braddock. The silver vehicle had bullet holes on its side.
As Officer Rosfeld ordered the 20-year-old driver out of the vehicle and onto the ground, two other occupants bolted from the vehicle. “The East Pittsburgh officer fired his weapon, striking one of the fleeing suspects several times. The gunshot victim, a 17-year-old male, was transported to McKeesport hospital where he was pronounced deceased at 9:19 p.m. The occupant who was detained was later released. Two firearms were later recovered from the suspect vehicle. The third occupant who fled remains at large,” according to a statement from the Allegheny County Police Department, dated June 20.
These developments, along with erroneous reports of a different video allegedly showing Rose firing a weapon in the North Braddock shooting, and his running from the scene, led some people to paint Rose with the “guilty” brush.
A Freeport Volunteer Fire Department Station 70 executive officer, Christopher James Negley, was suspended indefinitely after he posted the following comment on Facebook: “It’s cause none of those niggs gotta use the parkway in the morning to go to work…and there’s your problem right there…I’m guessing they are all smoking strong ass menthols and all have brand new nikes!!!”
And the City of Pittsburgh has placed a Pittsburgh police officer on “modified duty” pending an investigation for “posting insensitive remarks on social media,” according to a June 25 statement from Chris Togneri, Pittsburgh police public information officer.
It’s now eight days since the death of Antwon Rose II, and Lee Merritt, a Philadelphia-based attorney for the family, continues to press county, state and federal officials for criminal charges to be filed against East Pittsburgh Officer Michael Rosfeld, for the killing of Antwon Rose II.
But here locally, the decision to criminally charge Officer Rosfeld is in the hands of Zappala. As of Tuesday, June 26, he has yet to make a decision.
“We all know his seat is up next year…I’m asking Stephen Zappala to make a decision,” Ford told the crowd during the Courthouse rally, June 21. “You have a decision to make right now that can have an everlasting impact on this city forever…and so, if Stephen Zappala decides not to pursue charges against the officer who shot Antwon, I’m asking for someone to stand up and run against him.”
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