A demand for answers after a deadly police shooting of an unarmed teenager in Pennsylvania.
17-year-old victim Antown Rose’s parents speaking exclusively to ABC News about their son’s death and what they want from that officer, as today, they lay their son to rest.
As hundreds pack into the Woodlawn Halls Middle School to pay their respects to Antwon Rose, his parents are left grieving for their teenage son. Mother Michelle Kenney *sobs* “I miss my baby… Every time you turn on the TV… It’s a young African American male shot by the police and you say, ‘I feel sorry for them’. But them is me. Them is him.”
Disbelief that it’s their son who was shot and killed by East Pittsburgh Police Officer Michael Rosfeld last week as Rose ran away from a traffic stop.
Michelle Kenney saying, “He murdered my son in cold blood”.
The 23-year-old woman who took the video asked us not to show her face.
Michelle Kenney saying, “It was like he was taking out target practice on this young man’s back. He didn’t flinch, he didn’t say, ‘stop running'”.
The car Antwon was riding in was suspected of being involved in a drive-by shooting. Police say they found two guns inside the vehicle after Antwon was shot and an empty gun clip in his pocket. The County District Attorney says the officer is cooperating with the investigation.
Protestors, like Sauntee Turner, out in East Pittsburgh, rain or shine, for days, saying nothing can justify his death. “Police are not judge and jury, they are to enforce the law.”
Or, the loss of a 17-year-old’s future. One he dreamed up for himself in this Facebook post from July 2015, where Antwon looks forward to the day he can say he’s ‘made it,’ for this young man, meant moving his mom out of the hood.
Michelle Kenney says, “If it’s me today, it could be anybody tomorrow, because I promise the world, I never thought it would be us.”
The protests, which have been going nearly non-stop since the shooting are on pause today out of respect for Antwon’s funeral, but they’re expected to pick back up tomorrow, and Antwon’s family has encouraged everyone to keep fighting, but to do it peacefully.
–Maggie Ruli, ABC News
