East Pittsburgh Officials Address Fatal Shooting Of Antwon Rose

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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- East Pittsburgh Borough officials issued a statement Friday addressing the charges filed against Officer Michael Rosfeld in the fatal shooting of Antwon Rose.

According to the statement released on behalf of Borough Council, the Mayor and the East Pittsburgh Police Department, Rosfeld has been on unpaid administrative leave since the shooting and he will remain on unpaid leave while criminal proceedings are pending.

The department also says they "acknowledge the serious allegations directed at our management of the borough police department" and they are "engaged in an evaluation of the operations of our police department in a determined spirit of correcting any shortcomings that we find."

On Wednesday, after announcing that Rosfeld would be facing criminal homicide charges, District Attorney Steve Zappala said he was concerned about the lack of policies and procedures in East Pittsburgh.

"In response to questions by major crime investigators when they first came on the scene in East Pittsburgh, they said, 'how do you handle these situations, what are your policies.' And they said, 'we don't have policies.' That's a very dangerous situation," Zappala said.

The full statement from East Pittsburgh can be read below:

"The elected officials and Chief of Police of the Borough of East Pittsburgh wish again to express our profound sorrow at the death of Antwon Rose and to extend to his family and friends our sincere condolences.

We acknowledge the serious allegations directed at our management of the borough police department and that our officer has been charged by the District Attorney with homicide. We endeavor to come to terms with the startling and dramatic events that have occurred over the past two weeks. We continue to strive to maintain Borough operations while presented with numerous protests and the myriad of death threats directed to Borough leadership which have caused us to make certain changes to our operations.

In these troubling times we wish to recognize the positive support that neighboring municipalities have extended to us and to express our deep appreciation for that support.

We are engaged in an evaluation of the operations of our police department in a determined spirit of correcting any shortcomings that we find.

Since the outset of these tragic events, Officer Rosfeld has and will remain on unpaid leave during the pendency of the criminal proceedings. Also since the outset of these events, the Borough has cooperated fully with detectives from the Allegheny County Police Department during the investigation. We recognize that Officer Rosfeld has a right to due process of the law as the criminal prosecution proceeds.

We wish to convey to the residents of our Borough and our greater community that we are committed to learn from these very difficult lessons and improve our management of our local government."