Antwon Rose Jr, 17, was gunned down by a police officer on Tuesday
A woman who filmed a police officer shoot an unarmed African-American teen said the officer had been acting ‘very harsh’ and ‘very aggressive’ in the moments leading up to the shooting.
The witness unwittingly captured Antwon Rose’s last moment on her cellphone in East Pittsburgh.
In the short clip taken from a second floor window, Rose, 17, can be seen running from the car during a traffic stop. Three shots then appear to come from the officer’s gun.
Police said they stopped the car after receiving 911 calls of a drive-by shooting in the area.
Shauny Mary, 23, told ABC News that the officer fired without any obvious sign of provocation.
‘The way he had his gun pointed towards him, he was ready to do something,’ she said. ‘He was taking target practice on this young man’s back.’
Rose was pulled over on Tuesday by 30-year-old officer Michael Rosfeld, who had only been on the East Pittsburgh police force for three weeks.
Video shot my Shauny Mary show Antwon (in the grey shirt) being shot as the driver of the car was handcuffed. The car was identified as one used in a drive-by shooting earlier
Shauny Mary, 23, captured the shooting on camera from a nearby window and Rose being placed into an ambulance
The footage captured the aftermath of the shooting and emergency response in detail
Mary said she knew something was wrong from the tone of the officer’s voice.
‘He was very harsh,’ she said. ‘He was screaming and he was very aggressive. I didn’t understand why.’
‘As the police officer’s screaming his gun is out and already pointed toward the vehicle,’ Mary said. ‘I captured the exact moment of him shooting.’
‘The officer’s gun is pointed toward the vehicle and you see two kids flee from the car,’ Mary recalled. ‘Then three shots.’
In the moments following the shooting, the police officer appeared to know that he had made the wrong call and other officers attempted to console him.
‘He had his hands over his head,’ Mary said. ‘He looked like he knew he messed up… he looked frantic.’
Mary believed that the police could have de-escalated the situation without shots being fired.
‘Why were they shooting at them?’ she asked during an ABC News interview. ‘All they did was run. They didn’t have nothing in their hands and they didn’t say anything to the cop to make him feel scared.’
Rosfeld was placed on leave pending an investigation into the shooting.
Mary was interviewed by ABC News and described how the police officer seemed agitated and agressive in the moments before the shooting took place
Antwon’s death has spurred several nights of protest marches in Pittsburgh as hundreds marched down streets holding Black Lives Matter placards and chanting ‘no justice, no peace’
Antwon’s death has spurred several nights of protest marches in downtown Pittsburgh.
On Friday night hundreds marched down streets holding Black Lives Matter placards and chanting ‘Who did this? The police did this.’
Demands for answers to why Rosfeld shot Antwon seconds after he bolted from a car grew with an emotional speech by state Rep Jake Wheatley at the state Capitol, and an appeal by the legislator and two other black Pittsburgh area lawmakers for a ‘thorough and transparent investigation that builds community’.
‘My heart is heavy right now,’ Wheatley said , decrying both Antwon’s death and the street violence that earlier in the week left young rapper XXXTentacion dead.
‘We cannot casually keep closing our eyes and ears to the fact there’s a group of people whose lives seemingly don’t matter.’
Antwon’s death has spurred a protests in Pittsburgh as hundreds marched down streets holding Black Lives Matter placards and chanting ‘Who did this? The police did this’
Interviewed briefly by television station WTAE, Rosfeld, who is 30, said he could not discuss the shooting but that he was getting a lot of support from law enforcement.
He told the station that he hasn’t seen a video of the shooting posted to Facebook.
Authorities said two handguns were retrieved from the car, and District Attorney Stephen Zappala said an empty gun clip was found in Antwon’s pocket.
Lawyers for Antwon’s family have said no evidence has been produced that shows the teen posed a threat to police.
They also said that no evidence had been presented showing the teen had been part of the earlier shooting.
Attorney Fred Rabner said the empty clip and the guns found in the car have no bearing on whether the shooting was justified.
‘The analysis required of a fact finder in a case alleging police wrongdoing only looks at the officer’s state of mind at the time that an action was taken; it’s not done in hindsight after facts are learned,’ Rabner said.
‘Using that analysis, there’s almost no imaginable set of circumstances that would make this shooting anything but a murder.’
Prosecutors met Thursday and again Friday with county investigators to review evidence, Zappala said.
Antwon was shot Tuesday night in East Pittsburgh after the car he was riding in was pulled over by Rosfeld because it matched the description of a car wanted in a shooting in a nearby town, police said. A young girl comforts another teen during a protest on Friday
Authorities said two handguns were retrieved from the car, and District Attorney Stephen Zappala said an empty gun clip was found in Antwon’s pocket. Protesters are seen outside PNC Park on Friday
On Thursday, hundreds of people in Pennsylvania took to the streets to protest the fatal police shooting of Antwon
One demonstrator’s sign called for the end of police violence and another held a Black Lives Matter sign in the air
Another protester held a sign that said: ‘A badge is not a license to kill’
Antwon was struck three times by Rosfeld, who has been placed on administrative leave