Marking one year since the fatal police shooting of 19-year-old Win Rozario, members of the South Asian community joined his family and friends on Thursday, April 10, for a vigil at Frank McConnell Park in Richmond Hill, followed by a march demanding justice.
Rozario, a Bangladeshi teen experiencing a mental health crisis, was killed by NYPD officers in his Ozone Park home in front of his family. His relatives renewed calls for accountability, criticizing Mayor Eric Adams, the NYPD, and Attorney General Letitia James for what they described as inaction, and urged the firing and prosecution of the cops who tased and then shot him.
“The NYPD robbed my son of a natural life,” Rozario’s mother Notan Eva Costa said during the vigil. “I need you to know the names of the police that murdered Win: Salvatore Alongi and Matthew Cianfrocco. These murderers must be fired and prosecuted.”
At approximately 1:48 p.m. on March 27, 2024, NYPD officers from the 102nd Precinct in Richmond Hill responded to a 911 call at 103rd Street and 101st Avenue in Ozone Park, authorities said. Upon arrival, officers encountered Rozario, who can be seen on body-worn camera footage holding a pair of scissors. Two officers used their tasers on Rozario before ultimately firing their service weapons. EMS rushed him to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
“Officers Salvatore Alongi and Matthew Cianfrocco tased, shot and killed my son in less than two minutes,” Francis Rozario said. “They treated him like he didn’t matter and it’s a miracle they didn’t also kill my other son and wife who were there. The NYPD is too powerful in this city, they are getting away with murder.”
Following the fatal shooting, then-NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said Rozario’s mother had rushed to aid her son and “knocked the tasers out of his body” prior to the shooting. The family is aware that the Attorney General and the Civilian Complaint Review Board investigations remain ongoing, but they say they have not been updated on the NYPD’s investigation over the last year, according to Win’s brother.
“It’s also awful that the mayor and NYPD have never once updated my family on the NYPD’s investigation into Win’s murder,” Utsho Rozario said. “We’re demanding that they update my family on the NYPD investigation.”
The family was joined by members of the Justice Committee, which has been dedicated to building a movement against police violence and systemic racism in New York City since the 1980s.
“From the moment Alongi and Cianfrocco came on the scene, they were using insulting language related to Win, and when they got into his apartment, they created a chaotic crisis,” Justice Committee Executive Director Loyda Colón said. “This was a cold-blooded murder by hyper-aggressive and reckless cops.”
The Justice Committee and Desi’s Rising Up & Moving (DRUM) are calling for the to be removed from the city’s mental health response.
“Win Rozario should be alive and at home with his family. Instead, his family has suffered a year of silence and uncertainty after the murder of their son and brother by NYPD officers,” DRUM organizer Simran Thind said. “We call on all our communities to stand in solidarity with the Rozario family and take action for Win.”
State Senator Jessica Ramos, a mayoral candidate and mother of two young sons, and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams rallied with the family and delivered remarks to the crowd.
“What happened on that day was a failure to respond to a mental health emergency with experts on mental health,” Ramos said. “And while we depend on our police officers to fight crime, Win Rozario was not a criminal. He was a young man with challenges, but no doubt with a bright future ahead if New York City had a proper mental health system, with therapists and social workers that speak the languages New Yorkers speak to make sure we are preventing tragedies just like this.”
Following the vigil, the crowd made their way to the 102nd Precinct.
“It’s been a year,” Williams said. “No one has been disciplined. Nothing has changed about how the NYPD answers these calls. That makes no sense at all. At some point we have to be tired enough, care about these lives enough, to do something different. We need some sort of change now.”
