Cop Who Shot Unarmed Teenager Was Sworn In HOURS BEFORE Shooting

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17-year-old Antwon Rose Jr was shot and killed in East Pittsburgh this week after being pulled over by police. He was unarmed.

Rose was a passenger in a car pulled over for matching the description of a vehicle involved in an earlier shooting.

In a video recording posted to Facebook by Shauny Mary, Antwon and another person can be seen running from the vehicle as shots ring out.

According to the Allegheny County Police Department, after the car was pulled over and the driver was being put in handcuffs, two other individuals fled from the car, which is when they opened fire. Two guns were found on the floor of the car after the incident, but no weapon was found on Rose’s person when he was shot dead.

Antwon’s former employer at the Pittsburgh Gymnastics Club said she’d never seen someone be so formally dressed for an interview at a gym before – that everybody loved him and he was very mature. It’s also worth mentioning that the driver of the vehicle was detained and then later released by police without being charged with a crime.

So what we know is that Rose was in a car that was very likely fleeing the scene of a previous shooting. What we don’t know is who shot who or what Antwon was doing in the car in the first place.

The fact that he ran when approached by police should obviously not equal a death sentence.

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Of course, Pennsylvania state law allows for deadly force to be used not just when an officer feels their life is in danger, but if it’s necessary to prevent escape. So, even though shooting an unarmed person in the back is objectively awful, it might be legal under state law.

That’s pretty crazy if you think about it. That it’s legal for a cop to shoot a suspect in the back if they’re running away. Before they’ve even been charged with a crime.

Federal law is more murky on this point. A 1985 Supreme Court case ruled that officers must “reasonably believe that the individual poses a significant physical danger to the officer or others in the community.”

The Mayor of East Pittsburgh said that the cop who shot Antwon Rose had been hired in mid-May and was sworn in only hours before. Protesters swarmed the streets of East Pittsburgh on Wednesday evening to demand justice.

At one point, they blocked a police cruiser trying to drive down Braddock Ave.

This is particularly devastating for the community of East Pittsburgh, that’s had to deal with far too much recent violence.

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According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Rose is the fifth student at Woodland Hills High School to be fatally shot over the last two school years, and the 4th just since last November. The Woodland Hills Students Against Gun Violence have initiated a GoFundMe page to raise money for Rose’s family, for funeral expenses, with a goal of $9,000.

Protesters remained near the scene of the murder for most of the evening, holding signs that said “Justice4Antwon” and “Black Lives Matter”

Now, every time we do a video about an unarmed black man (or child) getting shot by police, we get tons of comments from Americans attempting to justify it. ”Oh, he was a criminal, he was running away, he wasn’t complying.” etc. etc.

The details are different for every case, but what us at What’s Trending are trying to say is that those things don’t matter. Police shouldn’t have the right to just kill people if they feel like it, even if those people are criminal suspects.

Just as a reminder: in most other developed nations, police don’t kill people that often. It’s not something that’s just assumed will happen all the time.

American police kill more people in a few days than other countries do in years.

That’s what people are in the street protesting about. That they’re sick of living in a country where a police officer can be judge, jury and executioner. So I’m sure those comments will be on our video and entry on Facebook as well, but shooting a 17-year-old three times in the back should not be something we’re so eager to defend.

Rest in Peace to Antwon Rose. We hope his family is able to get justice.

Leave us your thoughts in the comments and follow us at @WhatsTrending for more.

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