The workplace of State Legal professional Normal Letitia James on Thursday introduced that it’ll not pursue felony fees in opposition to two NYPD officers who final 12 months shot and killed a 19-year-old who was experiencing a psychological well being disaster in his Queens house.
Inside two minutes of arriving on the teen’s house in Ozone Park on March 27, 2024, officers Salvator Alongi and Matthew Cianfrocco fatally shot Win Rozario 5 occasions after he picked up a pair of scissors and, at one level, superior towards them.
The lawyer common’s report on whether or not the capturing was justified mentioned the officers fired the primary time when Rozario superior towards them holding the scissors, and fired once more after he retrieved the scissors and took a step ahead.
The report notes that the cops fired three extra occasions when Rozario, nonetheless holding the scissors, was standing nonetheless in his kitchen — at a distance of not less than seven toes from the closest officer.
“The officers fired gunshots at Mr. Rozario after he had superior towards them and didn’t adjust to repeated instructions to drop the scissors,” reads a press launch from the AG’s workplace. “Subsequently, the reasonableness of the officers’ worry that Mr. Rozario would come at them once more with the scissors can’t be disproved past an affordable doubt.”
Rozario’s mom, Notan Eva Costa, father, Francis Rozario, and brother, Utsho Rozario, put out a joint assertion instantly following the report’s launch condemning the lawyer common’s report as “inconsistent” with what they witnessed and “biased” towards the officers.
“State Legal professional Normal Letitia James’ cowardly determination to not indict NYPD Officers Matthew Cianfrocco and Salvatore Alongi for murdering our beloved son and brother, Win Rozario, appears like we’re watching Win get murdered over again,” they mentioned. “Officers Cianfrocco and Alongi used derogatory language, cursed at us, barked orders, then tased and shot Win not less than 5 occasions in below two minutes, all whereas we begged them to cease,” the relations added. “It’s a miracle we weren’t additionally killed by Cianfrocco and Alongi’s recklessness.”
Rozario’s household and advocates have beforehand argued that the officers missed a number of alternatives to de-escalate the state of affairs, and actually, antagonized Rozario by capturing him with a Taser at one level whereas he was standing within the kitchen unarmed — after his mom had taken the scissors away.
State regulation requires the lawyer common to assessment and determine whether or not to prosecute police in killings of civilians, an influence granted after a Staten Island grand jury declined to indict the NYPD officer concerned within the chokehold demise of Eric Garner in 2014.
The group New York Legal professionals for the Public Curiosity says there have been 21 police killings of individuals in psychological or emotional misery by the NYPD over the previous decade. They and different teams have advocated for psychological well being professionals to reply to these conditions as a substitute of cops.
Beneath former Mayor Invoice de Blasio, the town piloted a program referred to as B-Heard that sought to divert calls to 911 in response to non-violent, psychological misery conditions to a workforce of well being professionals as a substitute of the police division.
This system has had blended success, partly as a result of many such calls had been nonetheless routed to the police division.
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has made eradicating police from psychological misery calls a centerpiece of his plan to launch a Division of Group Security, which is meant partly to liberate cops to cope with extra severe crimes.
The lawyer common’s report recommends the B-Heard program be scaled citywide.
The Civilian Grievance Evaluate Board, a metropolis company that investigates and administratively prosecutes police misconduct, filed disciplinary fees in opposition to Alongi and Cianfrocco in September that included improper use of pressure findings for 4 of the 5 pictures fired.
In a uncommon end result, the board’s members voted to approve the fees although company investigators deemed the firing of the weapons to be inside departmental pointers.
That case is pending, however NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch has last authority over whether or not the officers ought to be disciplined.
Alongi instructed investigators on the AG’s workplace that after he fired the primary Taser at Rozario as he was approaching with the scissors, he fired a second Taser although Rozario’s mother had positioned the scissors on a chair based mostly on Rozario’s “proximity to the scissors and the knife drawer.”
It was after the second Taser struck Rozario that he picked up the scissors once more and rushed towards the officers in the lounge. That’s when Cianfrocco shot him for the primary time, hitting him in his left arm.
Rozario’s mother then tried to wrestle the scissors away from her son, whereas his brother joined the tussle. All three fell to the bottom close to the kitchen doorway, as did the scissors, in response to footage of the incident.
Rozario shortly stood up, grabbed the scissors from the kitchen ground, and turned to face the officers, who had been nonetheless in the lounge.
As Rozario went to take a step ahead, Cianfrocco shot him a second time.
The AG’s report notes that the officers didn’t shoot Rozario till he took that step ahead. The final three pictures had been fired whereas Rozario was standing in place and even wobbling backward, nonetheless holding the scissors, after which he fell to the ground, in response to the report.
He was taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Heart the place he was pronounced lifeless.
“The reasonableness of the officers’ actions in response to Mr. Rozario’s actions can’t be disproved past an affordable doubt provided that they didn’t resort to lethal bodily pressure straight away, having twice used a Taser, and provided that, once they did use their firearms, they didn’t merely ‘blast away,’ however paused between pictures, shouted instructions, and gave Mr. Rozario alternatives to drop the scissors,” the report says.
A lawsuit filed by the household in opposition to the town, the NYPD and the officers described the pictures fired at Rozario within the kitchen in another way.
“Mr. Rozario didn’t transfer in the direction of Defendant Cianfrocco after any of those pictures,” it mentioned. “Nonetheless, Defendant Cianfrocco selected to proceed firing pictures.”
