(Reuters) – An East Pittsburgh police officer has been charged with criminal homicide in last week’s shooting death of an unarmed black teenager that sparked a wave of protests, a spokesman for local prosecutors said on Wednesday.
Officer Michael Rosfeld, 30, faces a single criminal count for the June 19 shooting death of 17-year-old Antwon Rose, Mike Manko, a spokesman for the Allegheny County District Attorney’s office, said in an emailed response to Reuters.
Rosfeld has turned himself in, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported. An attorney for the officer could not immediately be reached for comment.
Rose’s death was the latest in a string of killings of black men by police that has triggered street protests and fueled a national debate about racial bias in the U.S. criminal justice system.
Video footage of the shooting circulated widely online and showed two men running away from a car that had been stopped by police. Both men appeared to fall to the ground as gunfire was heard.
Four people were arrested during a largely peaceful protest on Friday over the incident.
Reporting by Peter Szekely and Barbara Goldberg in New York; Editing by Scott Malone and Bernadette Baum