Hundreds gathered outside of the East Pittsburgh Police Department Wednesday evening to protest the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teen who was running away from officers when he was killed.
Antwon Rose II, a Woodlands High School honor student and rising senior was shot three times while running from a vehicle that had been stopped because it matched the description of a car potentially connected to a drive-by shooting earlier that night.
Rose was pronounced dead at the hospital.
According to Allegheny County Police Superintendent Coleman McDonough, the driver of the vehicle was ordered out of the car by officers. That's when Rose and another male “bolted from the vehicle on foot.”
In a video posted on social media by a bystander, Rose and another man are seen getting out of the passenger side of a silver Chevy Cruze and running when multiple shots are heard immediately after.
McDonough said Rose was unarmed and two semi-automatic handguns were found on the floor of the vehicle. Police officials believe the vehicle Rose was in was connected to the drive-by shooting.
The driver of the vehicle was arrested and released without charges. According to McDonough, he told police he was operating as a jitney driver. A third person ran from the scene and was not immediately apprehended. Police are asking that he turn himself in.
The officer, who has not been named, was sworn in to the East Pittsburgh police department a few hours prior to the incident. He had been an officer in other departments in the area, according to NBC-affiliate WPXI. The officer involved was not wearing a body camera. McDonough said the East Pittsburgh police department does not have body cameras or police car cameras.
"I understand in today's atmosphere anytime a young man is killed there's cause for outrage in some areas," McDonough said to reporters Wednesday. "However, I would urge people to give us time to conduct an objective investigation, to gather facts.”
Rose was a “generous, hard working and highly promising student” his family said in a statement on behalf of civil rights activist and attorney S. Lee Merritt, who is representing the family.
Unarmed 17-year-old fatally shot while fleeing Pittsburgh police
Jun.21.201802:09“These facts, without more, simply leave very little room to justify the use of deadly force by this officer,” the family and Merritt said. “Additional information concerning the background of the offending officer and the facts available to him at the time of the shooting is needed as we determine the appropriate action in this matter.”
Protesters who gathered outside of the police department Wednesday night chanted “black lives matter” and “no justice, no peace, no racist police.”
Another protest is expected to take place Thursday afternoon at the Allegheny County Courthouse.
Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto said this is “a devastating situation” and he is saddened for Rose and his family.
“While Tuesday's shooting was not within the city's official borders it impacts all of us in the Pittsburgh region, and particularly those in the African-American community,” he said in a statement to NBC News. “In my reactions to the incident I should have acknowledged that these shootings affect all of us, no matter where we live, and for that I am sorry.”
A funeral for Rose will be held Monday, June 25.