Wife Of NYPD Shooting Suspect Blames Court's 'Negligence' For Tragedy
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The wife of a man who was killed in a police-involved shooting that also claimed the life of a NYPD sergeant is speaking out, saying her husband was suffering from emotional distress and that the incident was "something that could have been prevented, time and time again."
Tia Rosales says her husband, Manuel Rosales, 35, needed psychiatric care, and "should never have been on the street in the condition he was in."
As CBS2's Ali Bauman reported, Rosales poured her heart out on Facebook, not to excuse his actions, but to explain them.
"Suffolk County District Attorneys office was aware of his condition mentally when he was arraigned for his last arrest," Tia Rosales wrote on her Facebook page. "Instead of taking proper measure, a gross negligence occurred and he was released. I attempted two separate phone calls to assistant district attorney Elizabeth Moran last week, trying to understand what was happening with this case. I never received a call back."
The New York Post reports that Rosales was released on bail on domestic violence charges in July.
"If anyone is truly to blame for this tragedy, I blame Suffolk County District court and the judge who let him walk out of there knowing he was in mental distress, knowing he needed immediate psychiatric care. Because of this GROSS negligence, two husbands and two fathers are lost. "
Rosales said child abuse in her late husband's life plagued him with mental illness that could turn his usual kind character violent.
"I kept our children from Manny many times because I could never live with myself if I as a parent let my child grow up repeating Manny's traumatic childhood," she said.
The Suffolk County District Attorney said in a statement that the Assistant District Attorney reached out to Roasles on Sept. 20, but the number she provided was out of service. According to the DA's office, Rosales then called twice on Oct. 28, and both of those calls were returned with messages.
The DA's office says no further attempts for communication were made by Rosales after that time.
"The District Attorney's Office requested that bail be set at $20,000.00 cash with no bond alternative at the defendant's arraignment on the pending domestic violence charges in Suffolk County, First District Court," officials said in a statement. "Despite our bail request, the Judge set a bail amount of $2,000.00 or $1,000.00 cash which the defendant posted."
At Manuel's father's home on Long Island, Manuel Rosales Sr. refused to go on camera, but painted a similar picture of his son -- who he said is bipolar, and was failed by the courts. He blamed his daughter-in-law for causing Manuel's distress whens he took their son away and went into hiding.
Rosales Sr. said off camera that his son had been recently talking about what is known as suicide by police -- when someone intentionally engages in a gunfight with cops with the intent of being killed.
"When you say his you get the sense they're scared somethings going on when they're not really talking that much they're to themselves," Daniel Figueroa said.
Rosales, 35, was sitting in his car on Nov. 4 when he was approached by four police officers responding to a 911 call from Rosales' wife's 50-year-old mother, who said Rosales had gone to their apartment armed with a gun and forced his way inside. Rosales' estranged wife and two children -- a 3 -year-old and a 13-year-old, were also home at the time.
Rosales had fled the scene in his red Jeep before the responding officers arrived. When the officers approached the vehicle, he opened fire, fatally striking Sgt. Paul Tuozzolo, 41, of Huntington, in the head, authorities said. The other officer, Sgt. Emmanuel Kwo, was stuck in the leg.
Two officers returned fire, one of them a 25-year-old recruit who had yet to graduate from the academy and was in his third day of in-field training, sources told CBS2. The officers fired as many as 20 shots, sources said.
Rosales was pronounced dead at the scene.
Rosales' wife expressed her condolences for Tuozzolo's family.
"I am just so sorry for that Sergeant and his family. So sick to my stomach. As hurt and distraught and grief stricken as I am by this end, I can't stop also thinking of that officer and his wife and children...I'm devastated," Rosales wrote.
Though Rosales said she was "disgusted" by her late husband's actions and that he "should be held responsible," she also acknowledged that his mental illness -- which she did not describe in detail -- was partly to blame.
"He was a human being and unable to overcome his childhood, some of us just can't, it planted the seeds of mental illness so deep into his mind that there was no escape save for a major intervention and maybe a miracle. His childhood trauma created such a flawed character that things just never got better."
