In March, New York Police Department officers shot and killed 19-year-old Win Rozario, who had called 911 himself because he was experiencing a mental health crisis. Now, his family is asking for justice.
According to CBS News, Rozario’s family spoke out after the NYPD released the body camera footage of the day Rozario was killed. Advocates say it shows the police using unnecessary lethal force on Rozario.
The teenager made the call on March 27. When two police officers, Matthew Cianfrocco and Salvatore Alongi, arrived, his family said Rozario was experiencing a mental health crisis.
“He’s having an episode,” his younger brother, Utsho, told Cianfrocco and Alongi, according to CNN. “He don’t even know what he’s doing, to be honest.”
Rozario was standing in the kitchen with his mother Notan Eva Costa. He appeared to become distressed after police entered the kitchen. He grabbed a pair of kitchen scissors, which Costa tried to take from him.
Police fired a taser at Rozario after he got closer to the officers with the scissors. His mother grabbed him as police yelled that she should “let go of him and back up,” CNN reports. The footage appears to show the police firing a taser at Rozario again, which causes him to collapse.
In the footage, Costa attempts to comfort her son again. An officer yells, “Tell her to get the f**k out of the way!”
“Don’t shoot,” she tells police.
Eventually, Ushto, Rozario and Costa all stand in the kitchen together. Police continue to yell at Costa and Ushto, demanding they get out of the way. According to CNN, Costa and Ushto fall to the floor and Rozario is shot several times. The body cam footage indicates that Rozario was standing several feet away from the officers when they shot and killed him.
Loyda Colón, executive director of the Justice Committee, told CNN that police recklessly escalated the situation. The family is asking for the officers to be fired.
“The people that’s supposed to serve and protect us are the ones that’s killing us,” Utsho said per Democracy Now. “The police was so aggressive and reckless that they could have killed my mom and me, too, in our own house. If someone, if anyone that wasn’t a cop did what Alongi and Cianfrocco did, they would have already been in jail. But yet they’re still collecting their paycheck from the city like nothing happened.”
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Police constantly demonstrate why they are not qualified or capable of interacting with the general public. They don’t think or try to deescalate difficult situations. They instantly started shouting and tasering the teen which escalates the situation and made him more confused and scared. Police arrive believing everyone is a criminal that they have to overpower through force, including deadly force. When the only tool you have is a hammer, you approach everything as if it was a nail. This has to change.