By Rob Taylor Jr., New Pittsburgh Courier
The forecast called for pouring, drenching rain, and they still came.
They were the hundreds, even approaching a thousand supporters who marched, chanted and expressed their love and approval of 17-year-old Antwon Rose, while strongly showing their displeasure for local police.
The hundreds, possibly a thousand people who turned out near the East Pittsburgh police headquarters on June 20, 2018 never could have forecasted that one evening earlier, an African American teenager, who was unarmed, running away from an East Pittsburgh police officer, could be shot three times, with no life left to live.
The facts are undisputable, thanks to a video circulated on Facebook, showing East Pittsburgh police behind a silver Chevrolet vehicle, both vehicles not moving. An East Pittsburgh officer, who has yet to be named, observes two Black males—one in a gray shirt, the other in a black shirt—exiting the non-moving vehicle and beginning to run away. Within two to three seconds, and without giving chase, the officer in question fires his weapon three times, striking the male in the gray shirt, Rose, three times. He later dies from his wounds.
The male in the black shirt is not in custody, and a third person who did not run—the driver, who was already being detained—was later released by police.
The many protesters, at first, marched from the East Pittsburgh police station to Electric Avenue, but then progressed down the street to the Tri-Boro Expressway, and blocked the entire intersection, leaving motorists attempting to drive at a standstill.
Police agencies from seemingly everywhere—Monroeville, Braddock, Turtle Creek, Elizabeth, Munhall, and more. The New Pittsburgh Courier counted at least 42 officers who were in uniform, some with guns in hand. However, the evening remained peaceful, with no major incidents occurring.
