This post was updated on Friday at 4:50 p.m.
Police from the East Pittsburgh Police Department shot and killed Antwon Rose, a 17-year-old Woodland Hills High School student, on Tuesday night. Rose was unarmed.
A video of the incident posted on Facebook shows two East Pittsburgh police cars approaching a silver Chevy Cruze for a traffic stop. One officer fired three shots at Rose while he fled the vehicle. Another individual fled the car, and police took the driver into custody. The officers stopped the car because it matched the description of a car involved in an earlier shooting in North Braddock that left a 22-year-old man wounded in the abdomen. According to The New York Times, the injured 22-year-old was treated at a trauma center and released.
Allegheny County Police Department said they found two firearms inside the silver Chevy Cruze after the deadly incident, but Rose was unarmed when he was shot. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that District Attorney of Allegheny County Stephen Zappala said Rose had an empty handgun clip in his pocket when he was killed.
“Why are they shooting?” the woman recording the Facebook video said. “All they did was run and they’re shooting at them!”
Rose was taken to UPMC McKeesport hospital following the shooting where he was pronounced dead at 9:19 p.m.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported East Pittsburgh Mayor Louis Payne said the officer who shot Rose was hired in mid-May and formally sworn in just hours before the shooting on Tuesday. The Allegheny County Police Department issued a statement Thursday confirming Michael Rosfeld was the officer who was involved in the incident. Rosfeld was previously a Pitt police officer, and has more than seven years of police experience.
[Read more: Officer involved in fatal shooting was former Pitt police officer]
A rumor circulated briefly on Thursday that police were reviewing a video reportedly showing Antwon Rose firing a gun during a drive-by shooting in North Braddock that occurred minutes before his death. Allegheny County issued a statement Thursday afternoon denying that rumor.
The community responded quickly, organizing a protest outside of the East Pittsburgh police station on Wednesday night. Hundreds joined the impromptu rally blocking traffic while rain poured down.
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Summer Lee (center), Democratic state house candidate in the 34th District of Pennsylvania, spoke at the rally. (Photo by Anne Amundson | Staff Photographer)
Another protest followed on Thursday afternoon at the Allegheny County Courthouse in Downtown Pittsburgh. Many high-profile activists attended the protest, including Leon Ford, who was paralyzed after being shot by police six years ago, and Summer Lee, Democratic state house candidate for the 34th District of Pennsylvania. Protesters directed their focus against Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr., who is up for re-election in 2019.
[Read: Community responds after high school student fatally shot by police]
“Five kids from Woodland Hills have been killed since I started running,” Lee said. ““We will not just fight the power. We will seize the power. We are coming for anybody, anybody who stands in our way, towards freedom.”
Rose was a senior at Woodland Hills high school and was expected to graduate at the end of this school year. He was an honor student and previously worked at the Pittsburgh Gymnastics club mentoring children after school and as a volunteer for Free Store, a program that gives away surplus and items to those in need. Rose’s funeral is scheduled for Monday, June 25.
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