Family of Win Rozario, 19-Year-Old Killed by Cops, Demands Body Cam Footage Release

More than a month after the NYPD fatally shot a 19-year old in mental distress, the family of Win Rozario is frustrated and calling on the police to release unedited body-worn camera footage and the names of the officers.

“It’s wild to see that the NYPD can turn around highly edited propaganda videos in less than 24 hours of attacking college students but they refuse the most basic transparency of releasing the names of officers and unedited body camera footage when they kill a New Yorker,” said Loyda Colon, executive director of Justice Committee, a criminal justice-reform organization representing the Rozario family — noting the violent arrests of various student protest groups in the past few days.

Since the March 27 killing in Ozone Park, Queens, the NYPD has refused to reveal the names of the officers from the 102nd Precinct publicly.

Along with Deputy Mayor for Communications Fabien Levy, the NYPD press office has failed to respond to multiple emails from THE CITY for an explanation of why the officers’ names were being withheld.

Rozario himself had called 911 in the midst of a mental health crisis.

NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said the day of the killing that the teen had grabbed a pair of scissors from a drawer and moved toward the officers.

Each of the officers shot their Tasers at Rozario and seemed to have subdued him, according to Chell.

But Chell said Rozario’s mom, in going to comfort her son, accidentally knocked the Tasers out.

“At this point the male picked up the scissors again, came at our officers, who had no choice but to defend themselves — discharging their firearms,” Chell said at the time.

The family disputed some of those details in the days afterward, telling The New York Times that Rozario’s mom was holding him at the time that police shot him.

When asked by THE CITY about the release of  body-worn camera footage, an NYPD spokesperson cited the department’s “Operations Order” regarding the release of such videos.

That two-page order says that the department publicly releases footage of a “critical incident,” such as a fatal shooting, within 30 calendar days  of the event.

But a Q&A posted on the NYPD’s website notes: “In some cases, it may take more than 30 days if the investigation is complex, a court issues an order delaying or preventing release of the footage, or additional time is needed to allow a civilian depicted in the video, or their family, to view the video in advance.”

Parts of the video can also be redacted or blurred to protect someone’s privacy, the site reads.

The case is also being reviewed by the state Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigation. Since 2021, the AG has investigated all deaths “caused by police officers or peace officers, including corrections officers.” — albeit with little impact over outcomes .

Lack of Discipline

At a rally last month, Utsho Rozario, Win’s brother, compared the case to the fatal police shooting of Kawaski Trawick inside his Bronx supportive housing apartment on April 14, 2019.

In June 2021, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, the city’s primary police watchdog, substantiated misconduct charges against the two cops in the Trawick shooting.

But NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban said on April 12 — the Friday evening before the five-year anniversary of the killing — said that the two police officers, Brendan Thompson and Herbert Davis, wouldn’t be disciplined , in part because they “acted within the law” during the encounter with the 32-year-old, who suffered from mental health issues.

The decision was slammed by police reform advocates and members of Trawick’s family.

“This decision to not fire the cops who killed Kawaski is really scary for my family,” Utsho Rozario said at a rally at Foley Square in Manhattan on April 16. “If Mayor Adams and the NYPD let the cops get away with killing Kawaski who was cooking alone, in his own home, we’re worried they will let the cops who killed Win get away with it, too.”

“It is not ok for police to come into our homes and murder us,” he added.

In the Trawick case, multiple police experts who viewed the video said the officers unnecessarily escalated the situation and then used excessive force, ProPublica reported in December 2020.

But delays in the NYPD sharing the body-worn camera footage of that incident with the Civilian Complaint Review Board — which took 21 months — contributed to the CCRB missing a statute of limitations for bringing disciplinary charges against the two officers.

That meant the officers could only be disciplined if it was determined that their actions rose to the level of a crime — a much higher bar of proof.

Response to Mental Health Calls

For years, police experts and reformers have contended that cops shouldn’t be the first to respond to people experiencing a mental health crisis.

The city launched a pilot program in mid-2021 under former Mayor Bill de Blasio that sought to provide a non-police response to calls about people in mental crisis who weren’t deemed violent.

But the program has been slow to expand — now covering just 31 of the city’s 77 police precincts, Gothamist reported in January.

That month, the city’s health department released data covering the first six months of 2023 that showed the mental health clinicians and emergency medical technicians who are part of that program, known as B-HEARD, responded to just a quarter of the 911 calls related to mental health.

At the time, the program was operating in just 25 precincts. The precinct where Rozario was killed is not among those currently participating.

In March 2023, Mayor Eric Adams released a comprehensive mental health plan for the city that included a commitment to expand the B-HEARD program citywide.

But the program’s proposed budget has since been cut, both this January and in November 2023, delaying expansion.

A City Hall spokesperson confirmed that the program wasn’t among those whose cuts were restored in the mayor’s proposed fiscal 2025 executive budget, released a week ago, keeping the allocation for the fiscal year that starts July 1 at $35.3 million.

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