Antwon Rose Jr., unarmed teen shot by police officer, laid to rest in Pennsylvania

John Bacon | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Raw: Police shooting protests near Pittsburgh For the second night, hundreds in Pennsylvania protested the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old boy, Antwon Rose Jr. Protesters demonstrated outside the East Pittsburgh police headquarters on Thursday and shut down a major interstate. (June 22)

Hundreds of mourners gathered at a Pennsylvania auditorium Monday to say their last goodbyes to Antwon Rose Jr., remembered as a "bright, charming and generous" teen who was fleeing police when he was fatally shot by an East Pittsburgh officer last week.

Rose's death set off a series of protests across the Pittsburgh area that drew hundreds of demonstrators, many armed with "Black Lives Matter" signs and shouting "No Justice, No Peace." Organizers said there would be no protests Monday out of respect for Rose's family.

Family and friends gathered at Woodland Hills Intermediate School in Swissvale under tight security. The funeral program said Antwon, 17, loved basketball, surfing and skating, and that he played saxophone in the jazz band at Woodland Hills Senior High.

The program also included a poem the teen wrote two years ago entitled "I Am Not What You Think." In it, Rose wrote that he hoped his mother would never feel the pain of burying a child.

"I am confused and afraid," the poem begins, and the refrain is repeated three more times.

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Rose was a passenger in a vehicle stopped by police because it matched the description of a car linked to a nearby shooting, authorities said. While the driver was taken into custody, the passengers ran from the scene. Rose was shot three times, the coroner said.

Police said two guns were found in the car but Rose was unarmed.

The shooting remains under investigation, and no charges have been filed against Officer Michael Rosfeld, 30, who has been on administrative leave since shooting Rose. The officer had previously worked for other departments but was sworn in the East Pittsburgh force about three hours before the shooting.

Rose's mother, Michelle Kenney, in a weekend interview with ABC News, said Rosfeld "murdered my son in cold blood."

"If he has a son, I pray his heart never has to hurt the way mine does," Kenney said. "But I think he should pay for taking my son's life."

S. Lee Merritt, a civil rights lawyer representing the Rose family, has said rumors the teen had been involved in a separate shooting were unsubstantiated.

“We know that he was not armed at the time he was shot down, that he posed no immediate threat to anyone,” Merritt said.

Contributing: The Associated Press