Police Oversight Agency Cites Excessive Force in Killing of Queens Teen
The Civilian Complaint Review Board has found Officers Salvatore Alongi and Matthew Cianfrocco committed misconduct when they shot Win Rozario inside his home during a mental health crisis.
This article originally appeared in The City.
QUEENS - The city’s police watchdog group has recommended a slew of misconduct charges against two cops who shot a 19-year-old to death inside his Queens home last year, a case that sparked widespread outrage and scrutiny of the NYPD response to mental health calls.
The Civilian Complaint Review Board on Wednesday concluded Officers Salvatore Alongi and Matthew Cianfrocco committed multiple acts of misconduct — including excessive force and abuse of authority — when they tased and shot Win Rozario in March 2024, officials said.
The allegations being "substantiated" by the CCRB means both officers now face departmental discipline, which could lead to their termination but more often than not only results in a loss of vacation days at most.
Emotionally distressing body camera footage released by the state attorney general’s office months after the shooting showed Rosario’s mother trying to shield her son, while his brother begs police not to shoot his mom.
Alongi and Cianfrocco fired five shots at Rozario less than two minutes after entering his Ozone Park apartment, killing him in front of his family.
The CCRB substantiated eight allegations in total, four against each officer, and referred additional potential violations to the NYPD for review, the police oversight agency confirmed.
The officers’ fate now rests with Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who holds final authority over disciplinary outcomes.
“CCRB’s decision gives us some relief in this moment that they understand that Win’s life mattered and that Alongi and Cianfrocco are dangerous,” Rozario’s mother, Notan Eva Costa, said in a statement on Friday morning. “That means something to us especially because Mayor [Eric] Adams and Commissioner Tisch have continued to ignore us … and Attorney General [Letitia] James still hasn’t indicted Alongi and Cianfrocco.”
Costa added: “We’ll continue to fight to make sure Alongi and Cianfrocco are both fired as soon as possible so they can’t hurt or murder any other New Yorkers.”
Police reform advocates expressed concern that the department may drag out the proceedings, as they say has happened in other high-profile police misconduct cases.
“The CCRB decision … was the right and only acceptable decision that it could have made, but these officers should have already been charged and fired,” said Loyda Colon, executive director of the Justice Committee. “We’re demanding the NYPD serve the discipline charges immediately, instead of their usual tactic of stalling to shield the cops.”
One Step
The CCRB ruling comes three months after Rozario’s family filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing the officers of “botching” the response and accusing other cops of interrogating and isolating them after the shooting.
“This is one step closer to the accountability needed to push change forward,” Luna Droubi, a partner with the law firm Beldock Levine & Hoffman, which represents the Rozario family, said after the CCRB decision. “The City of New York must stop sending police officers to mental health responses.”
According to the lawsuit, Rozario himself had called 911 seeking help.
“Defendant Officers’ quick resort to force, repeated and loud shouting, and aggressive actions escalated and exacerbated the situation, making Mr. Rozario fear for his life,” the complaint reads.
Body camera footage shows Alongi tased Rozario after the teen pulled scissors from a kitchen drawer. Costa managed to grab the scissors away and pleaded with the officers not to shoot.
But after Rozario stood back up, Alongi fired his Taser again. Rozario retrieved the scissors his mother had placed on a chair, prompting Cianfrocco to fire his gun, hitting Rozario in the arm.
As Costa and her younger son, Utsho, tried to shield Rozario and fell in a heap at the kitchen doorway, the 19-year-old stumbled back into the kitchen. Cianfrocco then fired four more rounds, hitting Rozario in the chest.
“Mr. Rozario did not move towards Defendant Cianfrocco after any of these shots,” the lawsuit states.
After the gunfire ended, officers handcuffed Rozario before attempting CPR, the lawsuit alleges. Costa and Utsho were ushered out of the kitchen, blocked from accompanying Win to the hospital, and taken to a precinct where they were interrogated separately before being told he had died.
For three days, they were barred from returning to their apartment to collect medications or feed their cat.
Family members and advocates say the teenager, who was in emotional distress, posed no immediate threat until the officers escalated the situation — and the aftermath only compounded their trauma.
Mayor Eric Adams has largely avoided public comment on the case, only issuing a statement after the release of the body camera footage.
In that statement, Adams said that his “heart is broken,” and added, “The thought of a parent burying their child, let alone witnessing their child’s final moments, is unimaginable.”
On Friday, representatives for the mayor forwarded a request seeking comment to the NYPD, which did not immediately respond.
Advocates representing the Bangladeshi community say Adams has ignored multiple attempts by the family to meet with him directly.
The NYPD’s Force Investigation Division is also conducting a review of the shooting, but the family says they have received no updates in more than a year.
Additionally, the state attorney general is tasked with reviewing all law enforcement related deaths. But the office almost never brings criminal charges against cops involved in shooting civilians — and frequently takes more than a year before making any determination.
“The investigation is ongoing,” AG spokesperson Madilyn Somers told THE CITY on Friday.
The officers have been placed on modified duty since the fatal shooting and have remained in that status, according to a police source familiar with the situation.
‘My Heart Is Still Broken’
After the body camera footage was released, Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry acknowledged the tragic outcome and defended the officers.
“As the body camera footage makes clear, they were trying to minimize the risks to everyone in that room and were forced to make split-second decisions based on those risks,” Hendry said in a statement. “They deserve a fair investigation based on facts and the law, not demonization by activists who are exploiting this tragedy to advance an anti-police agenda.”
But one longtime NYPD veteran questioned whether the officers acted too quickly.
Charles Lieberman, a retired detective who helped craft the department’s current training for handling people in crisis, told THE CITY in May 2024 Rozario was “at a distance” from the cops when he was killed and that the officers “may have had more time to attempt other methods to de-escalate the situation and/or choose another course of action.”
“While the officer may have been legally justified in using deadly physical force, this was a situation in which the officers were made aware that the person that called the police was having a mental health crisis, because the caller was asking for help for themselves,” Lieberman said.
The fatal shooting didn’t need to happen, he concluded.
“The officers could have isolated and contained the person until additional units with specialized training and equipment were available,” he said.
Rozario’s killing came amid a broader debate over the role of police in responding to mental health crises. His family and supporters have joined calls for non-police alternatives, arguing that the NYPD’s presence in such situations too often ends in unnecessary violence.
For Costa, the fight is personal and unrelenting.
“There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t miss my son,” she said. “My heart is still broken.”
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