Win Rozario Should Be Alive
NYPD fatally shot a Bangladeshi American teen in the midst of a mental health crisis. Where is the outrage?
Content warning: This story contains mentions of mental health challenges and violence.
On March 27, around 1:55 p.m., police officers Salvatore Alongi and Matthew Cianfrocco responded to a 911 mental health distress call in Ozone Park, Queens. The caller was reportedly 19-year-old Win Rozario, who had immigrated to New York 10 years earlier from Gazipur, Bangladesh with his parents and brother. “Win wanted to join the military and dreamed that afterwards he would save up enough to have a farm,” said his mother, Notan Ava Costa. (The Rozario family is not doing interviews at this time)
Rozario wouldn’t get the chance to pursue those aspirations. Within three minutes of their arrival, Alongi and Cianfrocco shot Rozario at least four times. A local hospital declared him dead shortly after. Though police killed Rozario in March, New York Attorney General Letitia James released the bodycam footage only on May 3, revealing a heartbreaking scene.