Officer Trial

LIVE UPDATES: Gunshots fired into office of defense attorney for Michael Rosfeld

PITTSBURGH — Former East Pittsburgh police Officer Michael Rosfeld has been found not guilty on all charges in the shooting death of Antwon Rose.

LIVE UPDATES: Protesters gather following not guilty verdict in Michael Rosfeld trial

UPDATE 5:00 p.m. Saturday: Channel 11's Rick Earle has learned the attorney for the family of Antwon Rose has asked a federal judge to lift the stay so a civil lawsuit against Michael Rosfeld and the East Pittsburgh Borough can move forward.

UPDATE 11:30 a.m. Saturday: Monroeville police told Channel 11 six to eight shots were fired into Pat Thomassey's office during a drive-by shooting Friday night.

Officers had been patrolling that area since the trial started.

An officer stationed there got a call and left.

Within minutes someone had shot at the office, according to police.

UPDATE 10:05 a.m. Saturday: Sources told Channel 11 that Pat Thomassey was informed just after midnight about his office being shot up.

A woman said she heard six or seven shots. Three or four bullets penetrated the windows and the wall.

One bullet hit the inside wall, another hit a chair and a third hit the paper shredder.

No one was in the building and no one has been arrested.

UPDATE 8:55 a.m. Saturday: Gunshots were fired into the Monroeville office of Rosfeld's defense attorney, Pat Thomassey.

Police are on scene. The building is shared with a hair salon.

Channel 11 crews could see two bullet holes in the front of the building.

No one saw or heard anything. It's also unclear when this happened.

UPDATE 10:28 p.m. Friday: The Pittsburgh Public Safety Department has issued a statement following the verdict:

While preparing for the end of the Michael Rosfeld trial, the focus and singular goal of the City of Pittsburgh's Public Safety Department was to keep the city safe.

<br/> That remains our focus tonight. It will remain our focus in the days to come.

<br/> If demonstrations occur, Pittsburgh Police will be present to assure safety for everyone -- including demonstrators, residents, business owners and visitors to our city.

<br/> We know from experience that when Pittsburgh experiences hardships, we come together as a community.

<br/> Public Safety's mission is and always will be to keep everyone safe.

UPDATE 10:13 p.m. Friday: Michael Rosfeld was tearing up as the verdict was read.

The jury deliberated for a little more than three hours and each confirmed they agreed with the not guilty verdict.

UPDATE 10:00 p.m. Friday: Protesters in the streets have started blocking cars in the areas around the courthouse.

Channel 11's reporters around the courthouse have observed many people getting emotional during the protests.

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UPDATE 9:25 p.m. Friday: Attorneys for both sides have spoken, and protesters have taken to the streets of downtown Pittsburgh.

Click here for the latest reaction to the Michael Rosfeld not guilty verdict.

Channel 11 has a team of reporters that has been covering this trial all week. Watch live streaming coverage below or on the WPXI Now app for Roku, AppleTV and Amazon Fire Stick.

UPDATE 9:15 p.m. Friday: The jury has acquitted Michael Rosfeld.

Click here to see sketches from Day 4 of the Michael Rosfeld homicide trial.

UPDATE 8:20 p.m. Friday: The jury has reached a verdict in the Michael Rosfeld case. Channel 11's Michele Newell was the first to report the update after an attorney contacted her. The court has since confirmed the announcement.

UPDATE 7:52 p.m. Friday: The jury is now going into the third hour of deliberations.

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Channel 11's Aaron Martin says it remains unlcear how late the judge will let the jury go tonight, but the court staff expects to be back tomorrow morning.

UPDATE 5:13 p.m. Friday: Antwon Rose's mother, Michelle Kenney, spoke to reporters after the jury began deliberations.

"I'm grateful for the DA's office and the closing. His statement was awesome and I was concerned he wouldn't be able to tie in everything that is relevant. I am a little relieved right now," she said.

Reading this in the WPXI News App? Click the + next to the headline to subscribe to alerts for the latest details from this on-going trial.

Kenney also thanked everyone for the support she has recieved through the trial before speaking about the loss that she feels.

"I miss my son and he's not here. Antwon was not afforded the opportunity of a trial to defend himself. All of those rights were taken away from him by one person and it wasn’t the jury in this court. it was an individual," she said.

UPDATE 4:45 p.m. Friday: The jury is now deliberating the case of former police officer Michael Rosfeld.

UPDATE 3:41 p.m. Friday: Closing arguments have wrapped.

UPDATE 2:40 p.m. Friday: Closing arguments are underway in the Michael Rosfeld trial.

Click here to see sketches from Day 4 of the Michael Rosfeld homicide trial.

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UPDATE 12:30 p.m. Friday: Following the lifting of a gag order Friday in the Michael Rosfeld case, Channel 11 News heard from the former East Pittsburgh police officer's attorney, Patrick Thomassey.

Thomassey said he thought the jury wanted to hear from Rosfeld, who took the stand in his own defense Thursday, about what happened the night he shot Antwon Rose to death.

“Why didn’t they [Rose and Zaijuan Hester] just stay in the car? Yes, officer … and we’re not here,” Thomassey said.

CLICK HERE to watch more of Thomassey's interview.

Rose family attorney Fred Rabner also spoke to the media.

“This has been really brutal for the family to sit and recount and to hear those gunshots ring out, to see their son fall to the ground,” Rabner said.

CLICK HERE to watch more of Rabner's interview.

UPDATE 12:25 p.m. Friday: Closing arguments are now scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. Friday. They were initially set to start at 12:30 p.m.

UPDATE 12:15 p.m. Friday: After Judge Alexander Bicket lifted a gag order and dismissed a juror Friday morning, the defense wrapped up its case.

Use-of-force expert Cliff Jobe, a retired state trooper, returned to the stand Friday, having started his testimony Thursday afternoon.

Jobe spoke Friday to cellphone video of when former East Pittsburgh police Officer Michael Rosfeld fatally shot Antwon Rose as he ran from a traffic stop.

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When asked about the speed of light versus the speed of sound, Jobe argued that video and sound perception are different. He said the woman who captured the video was too far away.

The prosecution then hammered away at Jobe’s use-of-force training courses. Jobe said officers are trained to shoot and the options are based on the circumstances.

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UPDATE 11:30 a.m. Friday: The alternate juror replacing juror No. 2 after she was dismissed is a 50-year-old white man. He works as a service writer at an auto body shop.

UPDATE 11:20 a.m. Friday: Judge Alexander Bicket has denied the defense's motion to dismiss charges of first- and third-degree murder against Michael Rosfeld.

UPDATE 11:05 a.m. Friday: The defense has rested. Closing arguments are scheduled to begin at 12:30 p.m.

UPDATE 9:55 a.m. Friday: Juror No. 2 has been dismissed. She was a 39-year-old white woman who is a librarian. Her father spent 25 years in law enforcement. An alternate juror is taking over.

UPDATE 9:25 a.m. Friday: The gag order in the Michael Rosfeld case has been lifted.

Judge Alexander Bicket agreed to lift the gag order after Rosfeld’s attorney, Patrick Thomassey, argued it has been violated by Lee Merritt, a civil rights attorney representing Antwon Rose’s family.

Merritt has spoken to the media about the trial.

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ORIGINAL STORY: The trial for former East Pittsburgh police Officer Michael Rosfeld appears to be wrapping up. Now in day four Friday, jurors are expected to soon be given the case to deliberate whether the shooting death of 17-year-old Antwon Rose as he ran from a traffic stop in June was justified.

A use-of-force expert will again take the stand as the defense continues its case Friday morning.

The expert, a retired state trooper who owns a consulting company and has trained thousands of police officers, first took the stand Thursday afternoon. He followed Rosfeld, who testified in his own defense after the prosecution rested shortly before noon.

Jurors were told by the expert that he believes Rosfeld's force was reasonable and followed training. But the prosecution fired back during cross-examination, saying he has testified in 41 cases and never against a police officer.

Reading this in the WPXI News App? Click the + next to the headline to subscribe to alerts for the latest details from this on-going trial.

Prosecutors also raised the question of how much money the expert was receiving by analyzing this case, an answer he could not give right away.

Regardless, testimony from the use-of-force expert could be crucial.

“I think it's important the defense brings in a use-of-force expert because the jury is watching the video and they're seeing a young man running away, and they're seeing an officer shooting him three times in the back. The defense needs to bring in an expert to say this use of force is justified,” legal analyst, attorney Blaine Jones, said.

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While the importance of the use-of-force expert's testimony may not be lost on jurors, the biggest talking point of day three of the trial was Rosfeld's testimony.

Rosfeld talked in detail about the night he shot and killed Rose. He testified for nearly 90 minutes, and tears were visible in his eyes.

Rose was in a car with another teenager, Zaijuan Hester, when it was pulled over June 19 in East Pittsburgh following a drive-by shooting minutes earlier in North Braddock. Both teens ran, and Hester has since pleaded guilty to being the shooter.

New surveillance video from a camera on Cliff Street was introduced in court Thursday, showing Rose in the short period of time between the drive-by shooting and when he was shot by Rosfeld. He can be seen with two other young men cleaning broken glass off the car, trying to cover the shattered back window, soon before it was pulled over.

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Rosfeld told the jury he was upset and shocked after shooting Rose, but he believed he was dealing with “dangerous felons” because the car he pulled over matched the description of the one involved in the earlier drive-by shooting. He also believed he saw one of the teenagers point a gun at him.

As the prosecution cross-examined Rosfeld, he said he thought there was a clear threat and after he started aiming, his gun and hands blocked his full sight.

Rosfeld said he shot at Rose because he was protecting the community and himself.

Rose’s mother was not in the courtroom for Rosfeld’s testimony, walking out before he took the stand.

 

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