Family of Win Rozario Reacts To Release of Police Body Worn Camera Footage of His Killing
Updated: Jul 25, 2025
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Yul-san Liem, yul-san@justicecommittee.org
Akash Singh, akash@drumnyc.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 3, 2024
New York, NY: Today, New York State Attorney General James released body camera footage of the March 27th killing of 19-year-old Win Rozario by NYPD Officers Salvatore Alongi & Matthew Cianfrocco. In response, the family of Win Rozario, their representatives from the Justice Committee and Desis Rising Up & Moving, and the family’s attorneys released the following statements:
Statement from Win Rozario’s family - Notan Ava Costa, Utsho Rozario, and Francis Rozario (mother, brother and father of Win Rozario):
“It’s been over a month since we lost Win and our hearts are broken. We feel his absence every day. Reliving this is traumatic and painful. We wish it wasn’t necessary for the video to be public. The video that was released makes it clear that Win should be alive but the police came and murdered him in our kitchen without any care for him or us. The police created a crisis and killed him in cold blood. The officers should be fired and prosecuted for murder as soon as possible.”
"The footage is horrifying - this was an execution," said Loyda Colon, Executive Director of the Justice Committee. "From the start, the insulting language made clear these cops shouldn't be interacting with anyone who might have or be perceived to have mental health complexities. Contrary to the NYPD's lies that began soon after Win was killed, the video shows that the way these cops came in created a crisis situation that they unilaterally escalated multiple times. The cops made no attempt to de-escalate the crisis they created or engage with Win and his family other than to bark orders, tase and shoot. This was a cold-blooded murder where they killed Win in minutes, tasering and shooting him repeatedly. They were so reckless it's a miracle they didn't also kill Win's mother and brother. Officers Salvatore Alongi and Matthew Cianfrocco need to be suspended without pay immediately, fired and prosecuted. Mayor Adams needs to answer for why his administration has refused to release Alongi and Cianfroccos names and he needs to ensure that the years of cover-up and obstruction faced by Kawaski Trawick's family aren't repeated here."
"How many times do we have to stand with families because their loved one was killed by the NYPD, after the NYPD created a crisis and escalated it?,” said Simran Thind (she/they), Desis Rising Up & Moving Racial Justice Organizer. “Why don't we have teams of trained mental health emergency responders in New York City when it has proven to be more effective than police? We need New York City to implement more effective and proven public safety measures, rather than gaslight the impacted families and the public with false propaganda after such tragedies."
“They shot the man in the back. The NYPD’s recklessness killed one person and almost killed two more. These officers should be fired and prosecuted. It’s a disgrace,” said David Rankin (he/him), Beldock Levine & Hoffman LLP.
“There was absolutely no reason for Win Rozario’s life to be cut short. It is a devastating reminder that the police are not equipped to be first responders in mental health response,” said Luna Droubi (she/her), Beldock Levine & Hoffman LLP
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Background
19-year-old Win Rozario was in his Ozone Park, Queens home when he was killed by NYPD Officers Salvatore Alongi & Matthew Cianfrocco on March 27, 2024. He was killed in his family’s kitchen, in front of his mother and his younger brother. After Rozario was killed, the NYPD did not release body camera footage, the names of the officers or information about their employment status.
About the Justice Committee: Since the 1980s, the Justice Committee (JC) has been dedicated to building a movement against police. violence and systemic racism in New York City. The heart of our work is organizing and uplifting the leadership of families who have lost loved ones to the police and survivors of police violence. We empower our community to deter police violence, hold law enforcement accountable, and build people-led community safety through grassroots organizing campaigns, community empowerment, political education, our CopWatch program, and by developing safety mechanisms and projects that decrease reliance on police. By building solidarity with other anti-racist, immigrant and people of color-led organizations, the Justice Committee seeks to contribute to a broad-based movement for racial, social, and economic justice.
About Desis Rising Up and Moving: DRUM - Desis Rising Up and Moving is a multigenerational, membership led organization of low-wage South Asian and Indo-Caribbean immigrants, workers and youth in New York City.
Founded in 2000, DRUM has mobilized and built the leadership of thousands of low-income, South Asian and Indo-Caribbean immigrants to lead social and policy change that impacts their own lives- from immigrant rights to education reform, racial justice, and worker’s justice. Our membership of over 5,000 adults, youth, and families is multigenerational and represents the diaspora of the South Asian communities – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Guyana, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, and beyond. In over a decade, we have built a unique model of South Asian and Indo-Caribbean undocumented workers, women, and youth led organizing for rights and justice from the local to the global rooted in base building, leadership development, running short and long term campaigns to reform policies on all levels, strong cross-community alliances locally and nationally, and building democratic and mass participatory spaces.
Watching the release of the body-worn camera footage showing NYPD officers fatally shooting 19-year-old Win Rozario in his Ozone Park kitchen reveals a devastating breakdown in how law enforcement handles acute mental health emergencies. Because Rozario had dialed 911 himself seeking help during a psychological episode, arriving with weapons drawn and aggressive commands immediately escalated an already delicate crisis into lethal violence. I was reading through an incisive civil rights and legal accountability review breaking down procedural de-escalation failures, body camera transparency policies, and statutory oversight standards over at Veergame this morning, and seeing how rapidly the situation turned fatal inside a cramped family home highlights why relying on traditional armed policing for mental distress continues to yield tragic outcomes.
The public statement issued by Win Rozario’s family captures an unimaginable depth of grief and trauma after being forced to relive their son’s final moments through public video. His mother, Notan Eva Costa, physically placed herself between the officers and her son, pleading desperately for them to hold their fire while attempting to de-escalate the panic herself. A community trauma counselor on Jaiclub was detailing secondary trauma among immigrant families witnessing police violence, the lasting psychological harm of publicized footage, and grief support in South Asian diaspora networks yesterday, and learning how profoundly this tragedy broke their household reinforces why the family’s demands for accountability are so urgent.
The critical minutes documented on the video underscore a glaring absence of basic tactical patience or attempts to establish verbal rapport. Rather than creating distance, retreating to safe cover, or utilizing non-lethal crisis communication methods, responding officers shouted profanities, deployed Tasers multiple times in close quarters, and fired live rounds while the mother and brother were still in the direct line of fire. Stumbled into an engaging chat exploring crisis intervention team protocols, spatial positioning during knife or edged-weapon disputes, and reducing crossfire hazards in residential interiors on RaxiWin recently, and recognizing that distance and calm communication save lives underscores how thoroughly standard crisis protocols were bypassed.
This tragic incident brings renewed public scrutiny to New York City’s ongoing resistance to fully funding and dispatching unarmed mental health response teams like B-HEARD to 911 calls citywide. When an individual experiences a mental health crisis, greeting them with social workers, psychiatric nurses, and peer specialists produces peaceful resolutions in the overwhelming majority of calls. Picked up a really well-explained perspective on municipal emergency diversion programs, alternative first-responder pilot results, and decoupling psychiatric care from criminal enforcement via Dm First earlier, and understanding that trained clinicians de-escalate without weapons shows why structural reform in emergency dispatch is long overdue.
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