Antwon Rose II

Antwon Rose II, 17, was shot three times — in the back, arm, and side of the face — and killed by East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Police Officer Michael Rosfeld on June 19, 2018, as he ran from a car that had been pulled over minutes after a drive-by shooting elsewhere. Rose, unarmed, fled along with another passenger while the driver was being arrested; bystander cellphone video captured the shooting. Rosfeld was charged with criminal homicide — he had been sworn in as an East Pittsburgh officer only hours before the shooting, following prior stints at other departments. At trial in March 2019, a jury that included three Black jurors deliberated fewer than four hours before acquitting Rosfeld of all charges, including first-degree murder, third-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, and involuntary manslaughter. No one has ever been convicted in Rose's death.

East Pittsburgh, PA · Allegheny County

• 2018: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The traffic stop, the flight, and the shooting, per Allegheny County court records and bystander cellphone video played at trial.
• Rosfeld had been sworn in as an East Pittsburgh police officer only hours before the shooting; he had previously worked at other area police departments and as a University of Pittsburgh officer.
• Rose was unarmed; police reported an empty ammunition magazine was found in his pocket and gunshot residue on his hand, consistent with the earlier drive-by shooting he was suspected of being involved in, though he himself fired no weapon during the traffic stop.
• Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala charged Rosfeld with criminal homicide shortly after the shooting.
• A jury of seven men and five women, including three Black jurors, deliberated fewer than four hours on March 22, 2019 before acquitting Rosfeld of all four possible charges.
• Gunshots were fired into the office of Rosfeld's defense attorney the night after the acquittal; no one was injured.
• East Pittsburgh's borough council voted to disband its police department entirely months after the shooting, citing cost and other factors; the department's contract with a regional force took effect in late 2018.
• Allegheny County later paid an $8 million settlement to Rose's family in a related civil lawsuit.

• Whether Rosfeld reasonably believed Rose posed a deadly threat as he fled unarmed was the central dispute at trial; the jury's acquittal reflects that it was not persuaded beyond a reasonable doubt of homicide, but the underlying factual dispute about what justified the shooting was never independently resolved beyond that verdict.
• The specific reasoning behind the jury's under-four-hour deliberation, given the gravity of the charges, is not public, as with all jury deliberations.
• Rose's own writing, including a poem publicly read by supporters after the verdict expressing his fears about how he might be perceived and treated by police, has been widely cited in public discussion of the case but is separate from the trial record itself.

• Wikipedia — “Killing of Antwon Rose Jr.” (sourced case history)
• CBS News Pittsburgh — “Former East Pittsburgh Police Officer Michael Rosfeld Found Not Guilty In Antwon Rose Shooting”
• Pittsburgh's Public Source — “Rosfeld found not guilty on all counts of criminal homicide in Antwon Rose's death”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs