Update: East Pittsburgh Police Officer Michael Rosfeld, who fatally shot 17-year-old Antwon Rose on June 19 has been charged with criminal homicide.
Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala will hold a press conference at 11 a.m. to discuss the charges, according to CBS Pittsburgh.
Earlier:
The remaining drive-by shooting suspect who fled a stopped vehicle alongside Antwon Rose has been arrested.
As protests continue to block traffic around Pittsburgh over the fatal shooting of Rose, who was found with a 9mm magazine on his person, authorities found and arrested 17-year-old Zaijuan Hester on an unrelated charge.
Hester is set to be charged today in connection with the drive-by shooting in addition to a probation violation and filing off his ankle monitoring bracelet, according to KDKA.
Rose and Hester, along with the driver, were stopped shortly after a drive-by shooting last week. The car they were in matched the description of the suspected vehicle and had bullet holes in the back, and the victim had reported he returned fire on the gunmen. Two guns were found in the vehicle as Rose and Hester fled the suspected vehicle and an officer opened fire, fatally shooting Rose.
In spite of these facts surrounding the incident, and Rose being a primary attempted-murder suspect, who was armed and in a vehicle with bullet holes, most media outlets have portrayed him as an innocent victim of a trigger happy officer – leading to massive civil unrest in the area.
The New York Times even went with the headline, “Antwon Rose II, Killed by a Police Officer, Is Remembered as a ‘Bright Light,” which completely ignores the fact he may have just tried to kill someone. CNN went with, “Teen slain by cops, leaves heartbreaking poem behind.” Most other outlets just framed it as “Unarmed Teen Fatally Shot By Police,” and framed with racial overtones, of course.
Much like several past incidents, more evidence will become available to the public, such as the report that there’s video footage of Rose firing on the victim. The question is though, IF the evidence points to Rose being a violent criminal who the officer had every reason to believe was armed and just shot someone, will that make the headlines?
