New York Attorney General Letitia James will not pursue criminal charges against the two NYPD officers who shot and killed 19-year-old Win Rozario while he was experiencing a mental health crisis in his family’s Ozone Park home on March 27, 2024.
The decision was announced on Dec. 4 after her Office of Special Investigation (OSI) released its report after an extensive probe into the teenager’s death, which included a review of footage from body-worn cameras, a ballistics report, crime scene evidence, and recordings of 911 calls and police radio dispatches, interviews with involved officers and a medical examiner, and a comprehensive legal analysis. OSI concluded that a prosecutor would not be able to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt at trial that the officers’ actions were justified under New York law.
According to the investigation, Officers Matthew Cianfrocco and Salvatore Alongi responded to a 911 call reporting an individual “on drugs” and acting erratically, and arrived at the home and knocked on the front door at 1:49 p.m. The OSI’s investigation later determined that Rozario placed the 911 call himself. At 1:52 p.m., Rozario’s brother opened the door, and after a brief exchange with the cops, the brother stated that Rozario was having an “episode.”
According to the OSI report, the officers ran up the staircase to the family’s second-floor apartment while continuing to ask the brother questions about Rozarios, including, “Is he high on drugs?” and “Did he take anything?” When the officer entered the apartment, they encountered Rozarion and his mother standing at the entrance to the kitchen by the front door. The cops asked if anyone else was in the apartment. At 1:53 p.m., Rozario went into the kitchen, opened a drawer, and took out a pair of scissors. He then walked towards the cops with the scissors in his hand, while his mother attempted to hold him back.
As Alongi and Cianfrocco backed away from Rozario and into the living room, one of them deployed his taser to stop Rozario’s advance. His mother pushed her son to the floor and snatched the scissors from his hand. While the cops urged her to get out of the way, she put the scissors down on a kitchen chair while still standing near her son. When one of the officers again shouted for her to move out of the way, she stepped a few feet away from her son and said, “Don’t shoot.” The officer who had deployed his Taser moments earlier fired a second Taser round at Rozario.
The teen removed one of the Taser prongs from his shoulder, picked up the scissors, and continued to advance toward the first officer. As he got closer, the second officer, who was standing to Rozario’s left, discharged his service weapon, striking Rozario. His mother and brother pushed Rozario back into the kitchen, and a brief struggle ensued, and they both fell to the floor while Rozario picked up the scissors, which he had dropped. As the officers ordered him to “put it down,” he took a step forward, and the second officer fired his gun a second time, striking Rozario, who remained standing holding the scissors as the officers again shouted for him to “put it down.”
Following a brief pause, the first officer fired his gun, striking Rozario. After another pause, the same officer fired his gun again, striking Rozario a fourth time. Rozario remained standing holding the scissors, and after another brief pause, the second officer fired his gun for a third time. In total, the cops fired five shots at Rozario, striking him five times. Rozario fell to the floor.
The entire incident, from the time Rozario took the scissors from the kitchen drawer at 1:53 p.m. to the time he fell to the floor at 1:55 p.m., lasted a minute and a half. The officers handcuffed Rozario while he was lying on the floor, and one officer began performing chest compressions while the other called for an ambulance. EMS rushed him to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Officers recovered the scissors at the scene.
Under the circumstances, given the law and the evidence, a prosecutor would not be able to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt at trial that the officers’ use of deadly physical force against Rozario was justified, and therefore, OSI determined that criminal charges would not be pursued against Alongi and Cianfrocco.
“State Attorney General Letitia James’ cowardly decision not to indict NYPD Officers Matthew Cianfrocco and Salvatore Alongi for murdering our beloved son and brother, Win Rozario, feels like we’re watching Win get murdered all over again,” the family said in a joint statement on Thursday. “We were safe in our home until Officers Cianfrocco and Alongi walked in and created chaos. He was only a 19-year-old kid — he had his whole life ahead of him. Every day without him is unbearable, and now we must live with the fact that the cops who murdered him will face no criminal consequences.”
They called for the Civilian Complaint Review Board to schedule a discipline trial and for Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch to fire the officers. They also called for Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to remove the NYPD from mental health responses.
“Win Rozario’s death was a senseless tragedy that brought pain to so many New Yorkers, most of all his loved ones,” Mamdani said. “The NYPD is holding a disciplinary trial for the two officers involved, which is the correct course of action, and I closely await its outcome. What today’s decision does not change is our obligation to do everything in our power to ensure this does not happen again, our commitment to delivering the social services New Yorkers deserve, and our investment in both genuine public safety and justice for all.”QNS reached out to the NYPD and is awaiting a response, while PBA President Patrich Hendry hailed James’ decision.
“We are grateful that the attorney general recognized the same reality as the CCRB investigators who found these police officers’ actions to be within guidelines,” Henry said in a statement. These police officers were placed in an incredibly difficult situation and forced them to make split-second decisions based on the risks to everyone at the scene. The NYPD’s review of this case must continue to follow the facts and the law.”
