Michael Rosfeld, the East Pittsburgh police officer who fatally shot unarmed teenager Antwon Rose last week, has been charged with criminal homicide, court records show.
The charge, filed today, came eight days after the death of 17-year-old Rose - the latest instance of police killing an unarmed black male -sparked days of protests across Pittsburgh and sustained calls for Rosfeld to be fired and arrested.
Charges against officers involved in fatal police shootings are notoriously rare, something a lawyer for Rose's family acknowledged as he described the family's "guarded optimism" over the news. As lawyer Lee Merritt spoke to reporters, Rose's mother stood behind him, sobbing quietly.
"We hope that [the district attorney] can vigorously and successfully prosecute this case," Merritt said. "But history tells us that it's not very likely. So it's like watching a slow-moving wreck take place and we want to see something different being done."
Rosfeld's bail was set at US$250,000. He has a preliminary hearing July 6, according to court records. There was no immediate response to a call and email to his lawyer, Patrick Thomassey.
Thomassey told CBS News last week that Rosfeld was "depressed and feels bad about what happened and that it was his first time ever firing his weapon as a police officer."
Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala said at a news conference today that he felt no additional pressure to charge Rosfeld because of the ongoing protests in the region but rather because the evidence in the case supported such a charge.
"Taking a human life is one of the most important issues in this community, dealing with those types of tragedies," Zappala told reporters. "You do not shoot somebody in the back if they are not a threat to you."
Under Pennsylvania law, a criminal homicide charge can encompass first-, second- and third-degree homicide. Zappala said he believed the evidence supported the most serious charge - which carries with it a life sentence - but that ultimately it would be up to a jury.
"We think we should have the right to argue murder in the first degree," he said. "It's an intentional act and there is no justification for it."
The fatal encounter occurred June 19 while police investigated a drive-by shooting in the nearby borough of North Braddock. A silver Chevrolet Cruze that Rose and two others were in matched a witness description of the vehicle involved in that shooting, authorities said.
Michael Rosfeld, an East Pittsburgh police officer.
An officer pulled up at 8.40pm, and Rose and another male fled.
According to an affidavit, an East Pittsburgh Police Department officer fired three rounds as the two were running away, striking Rose three times: The first bullet hit Rose on the right side of his face, exiting through his nasal cavity. The second struck Rose on the back of his right elbow. The final - and fatal - shot struck Rose in the middle of his back and was lodged in his chest.
A graphic video of the incident showed Rose tumbling to the ground several metres from the car. He was pronounced dead at a hospital soon afterward.
In the video, apparently recorded by a neighbour from a second-storey vantage point, a woman could be heard gasping as gunshots ring out below.
"Why are they shooting at him?!" she exclaimed. "Why are they shooting? All they did was run, and they're shooting at them!"
As of today, the woman who recorded that video and later posted it to Facebook has not yet spoken to authorities, Zappala said. He called the video "significant" and said investigators were still interested in obtaining the original cellphone version of the video so they could enhance it and examine it in greater detail.
Independent witness statements were consistent with what was shown in that video, he added.
Two days after the shooting, the Allegheny County Police Department identified Rosfeld as the officer who had killed Rose, and it said he was being placed on leave while the department investigated.
Two firearms were recovered from the vehicle, police said, but Rose was unarmed when he was shot.
Nationwide, police have fatally shot at least 491 people so far in 2018, according to a Washington Post database tracking such shootings. Of them, at least 90 - 18 per cent - have been black.
Black people have been the victims in 23 per cent of fatal police shootings since January 2015, when the Post began tracking such shootings, and account for 36 per cent of the unarmed people shot and killed in that time.
Rose is the only person who has been fatally shot by an East Pittsburgh Police Department officer since 2015.
