Parents Of Antwon Rose Want East Pittsburgh Officer Held Responsible For Fatal Shooting

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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The parents of 17-year-old Antwon Rose Jr., who was shot and killed by an East Pittsburgh Police officer on June 19, say they want that officer held responsible.

In an interview with ABC, Rose's parents say they support protesters who are calling for justice, but they want them to continue to be peaceful.

Michelle Kelley, Rose's mother, told ABC News that, in her view, Michael Rosfeld "murdered" her son "in cold blood." It's one of a number of things Kelley and Antwon Rose Sr. weighed in on during the interview.

Kelley told ABC she's glad that a neighbor decided to video tape the incident in East Pittsburgh with her cell phone or otherwise, Kelley said, "This conversation would be totally different."

ABC says the parents told them they didn't want to talk about what happened in the 13 or so minutes leading up to the fatal shooting. But they did talk about their dreams for their son, who had expressed interested in going to college to become an engineer or a lawyer.

They talked about the now-prophetic poem their son wrote two years ago, which was read at a downtown demonstration last Friday.

"That's not just a poem. That is the life of many, many young African-American males. It was just that my son wrote it down and he lost his life," Kelley said.

Rose's father told the ABC reporter that while he supports the protests as a way to get what he believes will be justice for his son, he urges people to "do it peacefully."