Family of Queens teen killed by NYPD to sue city – Queens Daily Eagle

The documents further state that the officers demonstrated “gross negligence” which led to Rozario's death and psychological harm to his family.

Rozario's family, Father Francis Rozario, Utsho and Notan Eva Costa, had statements read for them by lawyers on Tuesday. They said they collectively struggled to deal with the incident, which Utsho and Eva Costa saw unfold.

On March 27, Officers Alongi and Cianfrocco approached the Rozarios' Ozone Park home after apparently receiving a call from the teen himself asking for help in the midst of a mental health episode.

After speaking briefly with Rozario's 17-year-old brother, they went up to the apartment, where Rozario was with his mother. After seeing the police, Rozario grabbed a pair of yellow scissors from a drawer and walked towards the officers before being stopped by his mother.

Alongi almost immediately pulled out his Taser, while Cianfrocco pulled out his gun.

Alongi then fired his Taser, hitting Rozario. Despite the Taser discharge, Eva Costa continued to cling to her son.

“Let him go and step back,” the police shouted. “Let him go, miss.”

Utsho, who was standing to the left of the police, said, “Please don't shoot my mother,” a phrase he repeated throughout the incident.

Although at one point his mother managed to pry the scissors from Rozario's hands, the teenager eventually grabbed them again and was almost immediately shot at least four times by the officers, with bullets flying overhead heads of Eva Costa and Utsho.

Advocates and elected officials who joined the Rozario family said Rozario's death was “completely avoidable” and blasted Alongi and Cianfrocco for missing multiple opportunities to deescalate the situation.

In the hours after the shooting, the family said they felt like the officers were “treating them.” [them] “like criminals” and expressed little sympathy for the incident.

Utsho said in May that he and Eva Costa were immediately taken to Police Station 102 after the shooting. Utsho, who was wearing shorts and a sweatshirt, said he was not allowed to change despite the cold weather.

Utsho also said they were unable to retrieve her parents' medication or their family cat until they returned home 48 hours later, where Queens-based advocacy group Desis Rising Up & Moving helped them clean up the blood left at the scene.

“They didn't seem worried about us at all,” he said outside City Hall at a rally in May.

On Tuesday, the family and advocates who joined them also revealed that Cianfrocco removed his body camera and placed it out of view as efforts were reportedly made to resuscitate Rozario, who lay on his kitchen floor.

“To us, it seems like the NYPD knows they did something wrong, like you have no reason to mess with the body camera and take it off, put it on the ground, and then , on the way out, to pick her up,” said Simran Thind, a DRUM organizer who works with the family. “This is not a situation where the police simply abandoned her, but one. situation where one of the police officers took it off his chest and put it down, which should not have happened.”

According to the NYPD's own policy regarding body-worn cameras, “officers may not turn off the camera if an alleged perpetrator is still present on the scene.”

The NYPD does not comment on active investigations and told the Eagle on Wednesday that the department would consider a possible lawsuit if and when one is served.

The trial, however, is not the family's priority, Thind said.

“I think it’s kind of a byproduct,” she told the Eagle. “The family's main demands are that the officers be fired and suspended, then that the attorney general charge and convict the officers and that the officers also be removed from mental health interventions.”

Mayor Eric Adams has repeatedly said he will wait until the attorney general's investigation concludes before taking disciplinary action against the officers.

“As Mayor Adams said, our hearts are broken and we share the deep pain felt by the Rozario family following Win’s passing,” a City Hall spokesperson said Wednesday. The office has the full cooperation of the City of New York in its investigation and, out of respect for the process, we will avoid commenting further.

The spokesperson also said City Hall would review any legal action that may be filed against the city regarding the March incident.

In the meantime, as the family awaits the investigative process, they say they want the public to put more pressure on the administration before what would have been Win's 20th birthday, July 4.

“The big family affair [they] What I want for Win's birthday is for people to call the mayor and put pressure on him, because we know that the mayor, by himself, by the way he has already positioned himself , won't. [fire the officers] out of the goodness of my heart,” Thind said. “The family wants community members and other New Yorkers to step up.”