Video shows NYPD officers fatally shoot man in front of his family. His loved ones want them fired.
NEW YORK -- Newly released body camera footage shows the moments NYPD officers shot and killed 19-year-old Queens resident Win Rozario in March. His loved ones say police killed him in cold blood; the NYPD says officers had no choice.
Body cam video shows deadly NYPD shooting
In the video, Win Rozario's younger brother is seen outside the family's Ozone Park home, talking to two NYPD officers after Rozario called 911 on March 27.
"Um, he's having an episode," Rozario's brother says.
"What kind of episode?" one officer asks.
"He a bipolar, schizo, like...?" the other officer asks.
The officers ask the brother who had called 911 and one officer asks, "He called on himself?"
"Yeah," Rozario's brother says.
Inside the home, they found Win Rozario with his mother in the kitchen.
Video shows Rozario open a drawer, take out scissors and charge toward the officers before they use a Taser on him.
Rozario's mom takes the scissors from him and puts them down. You can hear his brother pleading with police not to shoot her.
"We're not, tell her to get the f*** out of the way," one officer says.
When Rozario's mom moves, police use a Taser on Rozario again, but the 19-year-old continues moving toward officers.
The NYPD said in March that the mother at some point accidentally knocked the Taser prongs off Rozario. It's not clear from the video when that occurs.
As Rozario moves from the kitchen into the front room, one officer fires his gun, but it's not clear if Rozario was hit.
"Shoot him," an officer is heard saying.
Rozario goes back into the kitchen, then you can see all three family members in a struggle.
Win Rozario picks the scissors up from the floor and steps toward the officers. One of the officers then fires four more shots until the 19-year-old drops.
Family of Win Rozario says NYPD officers killed him "in cold blood"
The family released a statement Friday:
"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."
Back in March, Rozario's brother told the CBS New York Investigates Team, "If they really wanted to, they could have detained him and saved a life that day."
The NYPD released a statement saying:
"The NYPD is fully cooperating with the state attorney general's investigation into this tragic incident, and is committed to ensuring a full and thorough review. The NYPD Force Investigation Division is also conducting an investigation. The two police officers involved remain on modified assignment. An officer on modified assignment does not carry a shield or a firearm.
"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. Less than 1 percent of those calls result in police using any form of force; even fewer encounters result in the use of deadly physical force. We continually seek to improve how we respond to requests for assistance, and we acknowledge that there is much work to be done. New Yorkers expect and deserve nothing less."
Mental health experts, policing experts react to body cam video
CBS New York's Ali Bauman showed the video to John Jay College professor and former NYPD sergeant Dr. Keith Taylor.
"He was not willing to listen to the officers' commands," Taylor said.
Taylor says officers appeared to follow their training.
"A man with scissors charging family members or the officers, that is an absolute... appropriate use of deadly force to stop that threat," he said.
Mental health experts, however, say this shooting is an example of why social workers and EMTs should be responding to more mental health calls.
"There was absolutely no reason for the NYPD to murder Win Rozario," said Loyda Colón, executive director of the Justice Committee.
"Yes, they are doing what they're trained to do, but they're not being trained properly, and that's the issue," said Matt Shapiro, senior director of government affairs with the National Alliance on Mental Illness in New York state. "It's not just what they're saying, it's how they're saying it. So yelling at him right away. I mean, as soon as they saw him with his mother, they were yelling, instead of saying, 'Ma'am, can you help us calm your son down?'"
Policing and mental health experts agree what happened is tragic, but the questions the attorney general must weigh are -- was the shooting justified, and was it avoidable?
