A sheriff’s deputy won’t face criminal charges for fatally shooting 2 Black teens

Onondaga County sheriff's officers work at the scene of a shooting in the Syracuse, N.Y., suburb of DeWitt, N.Y., on Sept. 6, 2023. (Dennis Nett/The Post-Standard via AP, FIle)

Onondaga County sheriff’s officers work at the scene of a shooting in the Syracuse, N.Y., suburb of DeWitt, N.Y., on Sept. 6, 2023. (Dennis Nett/The Post-Standard via AP, FIle)
 
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ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A sheriff’s deputy in New York will not face criminal charges for fatally shooting two Black teenagers fleeing in a car in 2023, Attorney General Letitia James announced Friday.

An investigative report released by James’ office determined prosecutors would not be able to disprove that the deputy, John Rosello, believed the car was about to hit him or that firing into the car was a way to prevent himself from being harmed.

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Rosello, of the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office, fatally shot Dhal Apet, 17, and Lueth Mo, 15, as he was investigating the burglary of a smoke shop in the Syracuse area and responding to a call about people transferring items between two vehicles.

Surveillance video of the shooting previously released by the attorney general’s office shows the deputy use his SUV’s front bumper to pin one of the cars into a row of bushes. Rosello then gets out of the vehicle, stands for a moment in front of the car Apet and Mo are riding in, then steps out of the way with his firearm apparently aimed at the car as it moves forward.

The deputy keeps his gun pointed at the car as it drives past him and accelerates away, according to the video and report. What’s not clear from the video is when Rosello began and stopped firing his weapon, because the video has no audio and captured the scene from across a street. Rosello did not activate his body camera before the confrontation.

Not PARSE.LY: Letitia James
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Rosello radioed, “White car, tried to run me over, shots fired,” according to the report released Friday by James, a Democrat.

Apet and Mo were found slumped over in a car on a street more than a mile away. Apet was pronounced dead at the scene, while Mo died in a hospital the same day, according to the report.

An attorney representing the families of Apet and Mo declined to comment.