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Protesters march through the streets Saturday, March 23, 2019 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The group called for justice the day after the former East Pittsburgh police officer, Michael Rosfeld, was acquitted of the homicide trial, accused of killing and killing 17 years earlier. the old Antwon Rose II last summer near Pittsburgh. (AP Photo / Keith Srakocic)
PITTSBURGH – The father of a murdered black teenager pleaded for peace on Saturday after the acquittal of a white policeman fired a shot apparently in retaliation on the defense attorney's office and unleashed protests in the streets of Pittsburgh.
Police put officers in teams for 12 hours until further notice.
The verdict on Friday night in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Antwon Rose II angered his family and city officials and prompted hundreds of people to gather Saturday afternoon at the hotel. 39, intersection of Freedom Corner, in the district of Hill District, historical center of black culture. life in Pittsburgh. A man was holding a sign with the names of black men killed by police in the United States.
"It's very painful to see what happened, to stay there and fix the problem," said Rose's father, Antwon Rose Sr. to the crowd. "I just do not want that to happen in our city anymore."
Subsequently, he told reporters: "I want peace, all the time around me … It's not because there has been violence that we parry it by the violence".
The essentially white crowd then marched through downtown Pittsburgh and other parts of the city, periodically blocking the streets chanting: "Who did that? The police did that!" The event soon moved to the campus of the University of Pittsburgh. Police reported no immediate arrest or injuries.
Early Saturday, five to eight shots were fired in the building where the officer's lawyer, Patrick Thomassey, told police in Monroeville. Nobody was hurt. The police said they had watched the scene as a precaution and shots were fired after they left to answer another call around midnight.
Former East Pittsburgh police officer, Michael Rosfeld, was charged with homicide for shooting Rose while the unarmed teenager had escaped from his home. 39, a roadblock last June. Rosfeld testified that he thought Rose or another suspect had a gun pointed at him and that he had shot to protect himself and the community.
"I hope this man will never sleep at night," said Rose's mother, Michelle Kenney, about Rosfeld after the verdict, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspaper. "I hope he sleeps as much as I do, which is not the case."
Rose's family is currently suing for civil rights violations against Rosfeld and East Pittsburgh, a small town about 16 km from downtown Pittsburgh, where the lawsuit was held.
After the verdict, Thomassey told reporters that Rosfeld was "a good man, he is." The defense attorney said that he hoped the city would stay calm and that "everyone takes a deep breath and pursues his life."
Leaders of two major charities in Pittsburgh issued a statement in which they expressed their "shock and outrage" following the verdict.
"Pittsburgh unfortunately joins an alarming and ever-growing number of business in the United States, in which law enforcement or security officials have freed themselves after the murder of young men in dubious circumstances, "said Maxwell King, President and CEO of the Pittsburgh Foundation. and Grant Oliphant, president of the Heinz Endowments.
"We asked the following question: Would Antwon Rose be alive today when it was white?" We, his family, and the leaders of the African-American community believe that he would probably be more than likely. "
Pittsburgh was in the limelight less than five months ago, when an armed man who reproached Jews killed 11 people in a synagogue.
Rose was riding in a no-license taxi involved in a shootout a few minutes earlier when Rosfeld knocked over the car and shot the teenager at the back, arms and on the side of the face. Neither Rose nor another teenager in the taxi was carrying a weapon when the officer fired, although two guns were found later in the vehicle.
Rosfeld had been working for the East Pittsburgh Police Department for only a few weeks and had been sworn in just hours before the shooting.
The jury of 12 people – including three black members – watched the video of the fatal confrontation. It took the jury less than four hours to reach a verdict.
Attorney Jonathan Fodi claimed that the video showed that there was no threat to the agent. But a defense expert said Rosfeld was entitled to use deadly force to stop suspects that he thought had been involved in a shootout.
The prosecution did not call its own expert on the use of force, a decision brought by the Pennsylvania Civil Liberties Union. But Mike Manko, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office, said the prosecutors were confident that they had everything they needed to defend their case.
Shortly before the end of the traffic, Zaijuan Hester, another person in the taxi, dropped the window pane and shot two men in the street, hitting one in the abdomen. Hester, 18, pleaded guilty last week to aggravated assault and firearms offenses. He said that he had shot, not Rose.
Prosecutors had charged Rosfeld with murder or willful homicide, which meant that the jury had the opportunity to convict him of murder or manslaughter.
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Associate press editors Michael Rubinkam in northern Pennsylvania, Ramesh Santanam in Pittsburgh and Keith Srakocic in Pittsburgh contributed to this story.
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