What We Know About the Police Shooting of a Man Who Was Wielding Scissors
On Wednesday, NYPD officers shot and killed a 19-year-old man in Queens after he had called 911 while experiencing a mental-health crisis. Officials say that Win Rozario brandished a pair of scissors at the officers who responded to the scene and approached them, prompting them to fire their weapons. However, family members of Rozario have disputed the department’s official account of events. Here’s what we know so far.
What do authorities say happened?
During a press conference after the shooting, NYPD chief of patrol John Chell told reporters that two officers arrived on the scene in Ozone Park, Queens, at 1:40 p.m. after receiving a 911 call from a man in “mental distress.” He said the officers entered the second-floor apartment and that the scene became “hectic, chaotic, and dangerous.”
As the officers tried to take the man who made the call, 19-year-old Win Rozario, into custody, he pulled a pair of scissors out of a nearby drawer and began to approach them. The two officers then fired their Tasers, striking him. But according to Chell, Rozario’s mother went over to aid her son and knocked the Tasers’ charges off his body. “At this point, the male picked up the scissors again, came at our officers. They had no choice but to defend themselves, discharging their firearms,” Chell said.
Rozario was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Chell said the incident was captured on body-worn cameras but did not indicate if that footage would be released. The department later shared a photo of the pair of scissors that Rozario is alleged to have held.
In response to a reporter’s question, Chell said the officers were not accompanied by a crisis-management team, saying that the pair responded to the scene within two minutes and the situation quickly escalated. (City residents can request a mobile-crisis team, a nonpolice group of behavior-health professionals, by dialing 988 if they believe that they or a loved one are in crisis. The teams can direct police or first responders to take a person into custody if they’re believed to be a danger to themself or others.)
What has the victim’s family said?
In an interview with the New York Times, the victim’s 17-year-old brother Utsho Rozario said their mother was holding his brother the entire time, in contrast with the NYPD’s account of events. “As my mother was still hugging him, they shot him with the Taser,” he told the outlet. “So they shot him with the Tasers, and my brother didn’t really go down. So one of the cops pulled out a gun and shot him as my mother still hugging him.”
Utsho echoed that account in an interview with the New York Daily News. He told the paper that he let the two officers into their home and asked them to “be gentle” with Win, and that he didn’t see his mother knock the Tasers’ prongs out. “It’s on the body camera, so we will see,” he told the outlet.
The Rozario family immigrated to the United States from Bangladesh in 2014. According to Win’s relatives, he was a graduate from John Adams High School and had dreams of joining the military. “We want justice. My son was innocent. My son had a little mental problem, but the police weren’t listening to us,” Francis Rozario, the victim’s father, told the Daily News.
What’s the reaction from local politicians?
Councilmember Lynn Schulman, who represents the district where the shooting took place, said in a statement that Win Rozario was “failed” by the system. “Win called 911 in mental distress, but instead of receiving the help he needed, he was shot and killed at his home by police after an altercation,” she said. “Instead of a police response, mental health professionals should have been sent to him.”
Public advocate Jumaane Williams echoed Schulman’s words, saying that another family is “needlessly mourning.” “What’s clear (or should be to those serious about safety) is that what we’re collectively doing isn’t working and is putting everyone in harms way. Period,” he wrote on social media.