Top photo: Michelle
Kenney looks out of the Allegheny County Courthouse window before the
start of the homicide trial of former East Pittsburgh police officer
Michael Rosfeld, charged in the fatal shooting of her son, 17-year-old
Antwon Rose II. “As a mom, you can’t prepare for this — you just have to
do it — there is no go-to map on this,” Ms. Kenney said. “I’ll treat it
as any other role that I have as Antwon’s mother. I just have to do
it.”
“We will continue to reach out to the community, to call on the community to come together,” said 1Hood activist/musician Jasiri X during a vigil in Rankin to honor Antwon. People gathered on
the basketball court in Hawkins Village where Antwon once played, a
painting of Antwon’s smiling face looking out above an altar of flowers
and candles. Addressing Antwon’s family, Jasiri said, “We will not
abandon you in this time… We are with you.”
The words came after a
weekend of marches into businesses and through the streets in dark,
rain, and shine after the acquittal of former East Pittsburgh Police
officer Michael Rosfeld in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Rose. The marches continued through the week, with hundreds of students walking out
from school and into the rain to flood the streets of downtown
Pittsburgh and chanting the name of Antown Rose II. Third grader Esme
carried a painting she made of Antwon that read, “This is why we kneel. #JusticeforAntwon.”
Across town at Woodland Hills High School, Antwon’s mother addressed
his former high school classmates. “I got up there and said what I would
have said to Antwon,” Ms. Kenney said. Don’t walk out of school in
protest, she told them. Get an education and work to effect change.
Vote. “Do what Antwon isn’t here to do.”
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