The workplace of State Lawyer Normal Letitia James on Thursday introduced that it’s going to not pursue felony prices towards 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 dwelling.
Inside two minutes of arriving on the teen’s dwelling 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 basic’s report on whether or not the capturing was justified stated 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 at the very least seven toes from the closest officer.
“The officers fired gunshots at Mr. Rozario after he had advanced toward them and did not comply with repeated commands to drop the scissors,” reads a press launch from the AG’s workplace. “Therefore, the reasonableness of the officers’ fear that Mr. Rozario would come at them again with the scissors cannot be disproved beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Rozario’s household and advocates have argued that the officers missed a number of alternatives to de-escalate the scenario, and in reality, 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 legislation requires the lawyer basic 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 dying of Eric Garner in 2014.
State Lawyer Normal Letitia James speaks at Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Midtown workplace about how New York officers will reply to Donald Trump’s presidential win, Nov. 6, 2024. Credit score: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
The group New York Attorneys 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 answer these conditions as an alternative of cops.
Beneath former Mayor Invoice de Blasio, town piloted a program often known as B-Heard that sought to divert calls to 911 in response to non-violent, psychological misery conditions to a group of well being professionals as an alternative of the police division.
This system has had blended success, partly as a result of many such calls have 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 unencumber cops to cope with extra critical crimes.
The lawyer basic’s report recommends the B-Heard program be scaled citywide.
The Civilian Criticism Evaluation Board, a metropolis company that investigates and administratively prosecutes police misconduct, filed disciplinary prices towards Alongi and Cianfrocco in September that included improper use of drive findings for 4 of the 5 photographs fired.
In a uncommon final result, the board’s members voted to approve the costs despite the fact that company investigators deemed the firing of the weapons to be inside departmental pointers.
That case is pending, however NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch has remaining authority over whether or not the officers ought to be disciplined.
Alongi informed 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 despite the fact that Rozario’s mother had positioned the scissors on a chair primarily based 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 accordance with footage of the incident.
Rozario rapidly stood up, grabbed the scissors from the kitchen ground, and turned to face the officers, who have 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 photographs have been fired whereas Rozario was standing in place and even wobbling backward, nonetheless holding the scissors, after which he fell to the ground, in accordance with the report.
He was taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Heart the place he was pronounced useless.
“The reasonableness of the officers’ actions in response to Mr. Rozario’s actions cannot be disproved beyond a reasonable doubt given that they did not resort to deadly physical force right away, having twice used a Taser, and given that, when they did use their firearms, they did not simply ‘blast away,’ but paused between shots, shouted commands, and gave Mr. Rozario opportunities to drop the scissors,” the report says.
A lawsuit filed by the household towards town, the NYPD and the officers described the photographs fired at Rozario within the kitchen in a different way.
“Mr. Rozario did not move towards Defendant Cianfrocco after any of these shots,” it stated. “Still, Defendant Cianfrocco chose to continue firing shots.”
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