'We have a battle to fight': Family of unarmed black teen killed by cop wants a conviction, attorneys say
The attorneys representing the family of Antwon Rose, the 17-year-old unarmed black man who was shot and killed by an East Pittsburgh Police officer last week, said the officer's murder charge is only the first step in their fight for justice.
Rose's mother, Michelle Kenney, and her attorneys spoke with ABC News Wednesday hours after Officer Michael Rosfeld was charged with one count of criminal homicide, saying that while they appreciate that he was charged, it's the "first step in a long process."
"We're here for the long haul," attorney Fred Rabner said. " ... We want a conviction of someone who murdered her son."
The attorneys had expected that Rosfeld would be charged based on the evidence, civil rights attorney Lee Merritt told ABC News.
"We're holding out, not only for a conviction, but for appropriate sentencing," he said.
Rose died on June 19 after he and two other teen were pulled over in East Pittsburgh because the car was believed to have been connected to a drive-by shooting earlier that night in North Braddock, a nearby borough.
Rosield then shot Rose after he and the others fled. A bystander captured the shooting on cellphone video, which authorities are reviewing.
Attorney Monte Rabner said that although officers "throughout the country" are being charged and most are found not guilty, the strong evidence in Rose's case should yield a different outcome.
"It seems the evidence is so clear in this case, that I can't see it found not guilty," Monte Rabner said. "But, juries do strange things."
He continued, "There's people out there who believe officers can do no wrong. That needs to change."
In addition, Monte Rabner said that Rosfeld should have been charged "immediately," rather than nine days after the shooting.
"If the roles were reversed, our client would have been charged in two days," he said.
Rosfeld's attorney, Pat Thomassey, told ABC News that his client had reason to believe that the individuals who were in the car had been involved in a serious crime because the windows were busted, and that's why he fired his weapon when the suspects fled.
Two guns were recovered from the car, both under the front passenger, according to court documents obtained by ABC News. One had been reported missing that day, and the other was reported stolen in 2016, the affidavit states.
Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala said Rose "didn't do anything in furtherance" of a crime in North Braddock or East Pittsburgh.
"It's an intentional act and there's no justification for it," Zappala said Wednesday during a press conference.
Merritt said that the district attorney's office told him that had Antwon survived the encounter, "there would have been nothing to charge him with," prompting the teen's mother -- clad in a T-shirt that read "Justice for Antwon Rose Jr." -- to break out into tears.
Fred Rabner said that members of the community need to get to the point where they "stop looking at the victim to try and rationalize a senseless act of violence -- a murder that we caught on tape."
"He found himself at the wrong place at the wrong time," Merritt said of Rose.
Now, instead of celebrating the charges against Rosfeld, the attorneys are gearing up for the trial, they said.
"We have a battle to fight," Fred Rabner said.
Rosfeld made his first appeareance in court Wednesday morning and is scheduled to appear before a judge in a preliminary hearing on July 6.
It is unclear whether Rosfeld has entered a plea.
ABC News' Armando Garcia, Jennifer Leong, Dominick Proto, Emily Shapiro and Morgan Winsor contributed to this report.
