The family of a Queens teen fatally shot by NYPD officers said cops immediately hauled them to the local precinct and interrogated them without an attorney the day of the incident. The NYPD then barred them from their home for over two days — despite their pleas to access medicine and feed their cat.
Utsho Rozario — whose older brother Win, 19, was Tased and shot by officers in Ozone Park on March 27 — said cops were chatting about their weekend while driving him and his mom from their home to the nearby 102 Precinct.
Utsho and his mom, Notan Eva Costa, had just witnessed the officers shoot Win five times.
“They were more worried about getting us out of the house than our well-being,” Utsho said Wednesday at a press conference at City Hall where they called for the firing of the two officers involved in the shooting.
Utsho, 17, said the family was allowed to return home only after they reached out for assistance to local elected officials and advocacy groups.
“I believe they would have kept us out of our own home for longer if they could,” he said, noting that it was the group Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM) that cleaned up the blood in the apartment.
“The city and NYPD kept us out of our own home for two days but didn’t even have the decency to clean up the crime scene they created,” he added. “‘Protect and serve’ is a lie.”
The family asked a neighbor to bring food for the cat but cops wouldn’t let that person inside, according to Win’s father, Francis Rozario, who made a statement in Bangla translated by Nesar Bhuyan, a DRUM Bengali Organizer.
“When we finally got back home, the cat was weak and frail,” the father said. “And now our cat is sad and misses Win, too.”
“The cat keeps trying to go into Win’s room to smell his clothing,” he added.
One police expert said it frequently takes days for police to gather all the evidence at complex crime scenes.
“With any police-involved shooting they want to be very thorough in getting the evidence to understand what occurred,” said Keith Taylor, a retired NYPD officer who currently teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Video Key to Investigation
Last week, the office of State Attorney General Letitia James released two three-minute clips from the body-worn camera footage of police officers Matthew Cianfrocco and Salvatore Alongi, who responded to the Rozario home in response to a 911 call from Win himself.
The video shows a harrowing scene where the officers first Tasered then shot the young man clearly in the midst of a mental crisis, even as his mother tried to protect him with her own body — causing Utsho to frantically pull her away.
Hours after the shooting, NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell defended the killing, noting that Win had grabbed a pair of scissors from a drawer and moved toward the officers.
The NYPD’s Twitter account also posted a photo of the scissors and said the teen was holding them “while he was lunging at NYPD officers.”
But the family and police reform advocates contend that officers Cianfrocco and Alongi unnecessarily escalated the situation.
“My son should be alive,” Win’s father told reporters Wednesday. “What Alongi and Cianfrocco did should never have happened.”
The NYPD did not respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday. On Friday, police said the two officers involved remain on modified duty without their shields and guns.
“Each year, the NYPD receives more than nine million calls for service, approximately 155,000 of which are emergency calls involving people in the throes of an emotional or mental health crisis,” the NYPD said in a statement last week. “Less than one percent of those calls result in police using any form of force; even fewer encounters result in the use of deadly physical force.”
The NYPD added that it is always seeking to improve how it responds to those 911 calls and “we acknowledge that there is much work to be done.”
The state attorney general is conducting a criminal investigation, while the NYPD’s Force Investigation Division is reviewing whether the officers broke any department rules.
‘I Miss Him Everyday’
At the press conference, Win was remembered by his family as someone who loved to cook, play basketball, and always picked up trash on the street.
Win’s mother said she’s still grieving his death 42 days ago but came to the press conference “because I want justice for my son.”
She described Win as “just a child” who had his entire life ahead of him.
Win wanted to join the military to help his country and dreamed about saving enough money to buy a farm afterwards, she told reporters.
“He would cook for me and help keep everything at home neat,” she recalled. “That is who these police stole from us.”
He also used to enjoy helping her make “handicrafts with beads” — saying, “His face would shine because he was happy for me and happy to be with me.”
“I miss him everyday,” she added.