N.Y.P.D. Officers Won’t Be Charged in Fatal Shooting of Queens Man

Win Rozario, who had called 911 in distress, was holding scissors when two police officers shot him. The New York attorney general said it was unlikely the officers would be convicted.

The New York attorney general’s office said Thursday that it would not file charges against two police officers who fatally shot a 19-year-old man in his Queens home after he called 911 for help during a mental health crisis.

The officers shot the man, Win Rozario, five times in March 2024, according to footage from the officers’ body-worn cameras. The footage showed Mr. Rozario’s brother and mother begging the officers not to shoot him as he stood in the family’s small kitchen, clutching a pair of scissors.

His family has called on the police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, and Mayor Eric Adams to fire the officers, Matthew Cianfrocco and Salvatore Alongi, and in September, the city’s police oversight panel voted to substantiate claims that the officers had used excessive force and abused their authority when they shot Mr. Rozario.

But Attorney General Letitia James, whose office is empowered to investigate civilian deaths during encounters with law enforcement officers, said she could not charge them because “a prosecutor would not be able to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt” that the officers had been justified when they fired at Mr. Rozario.

The officers first tried to stop Mr. Rozario with a Taser and, when that did not work, repeatedly told him to put down the scissors, according to a 33-page report by the attorney general’s office that detailed the investigation.

The report also said the two officers had failed to take critical steps that might have prevented the shooting.

When they arrived, they should have asked whether there were any weapons in the house or whether Mr. Rozario was acting in a threatening way, according to the report.

That information, the report said, could have helped the officers recognize whether they needed to request mental health help, which the department instructs officers to do in such a situation.

The Police Department’s training manual says that officers who encounter an emotionally disturbed person who is, for example, wielding a knife, should try first to calm the person and should avoid immediately drawing their guns or shouting orders.

The Police Department declined to comment on Ms. James’s decision Thursday evening.

The two officers are facing an internal misconduct proceeding.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Maia Coleman contributed reporting.

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