A 19-year-old man who was in psychological misery and known as 911 searching for assist was fatally shot by the police in his Queens dwelling on Tuesday after, officers mentioned, he threatened officers with a pair of scissors they usually opened fireplace.
However the man’s brother, who witnessed the taking pictures, contradicted points of the police account of occasions, saying his mom was restraining her son when he was shot and insisting that the officers had not wanted to fireplace their weapons.
The person, Win Rozario, was declared useless shortly after the taking pictures, which occurred round 1:45 p.m. in his household’s second-floor residence on 103rd Road in Ozone Park, police officers mentioned.
John Chell, the Police Division’s chief of patrol, mentioned at a information convention that the taking pictures befell after two officers answering a 911 name about an individual in psychological misery went to the residence, the place the state of affairs turned “fairly hectic, chaotic and harmful straight away.” The police consider Mr. Rozario positioned the 911 name, Chief Chell mentioned.
When the officers tried to take Mr. Rozario into custody, he pulled the scissors out of a drawer and “got here towards” the officers, the chief mentioned. Each officers fired their Tasers at Mr. Rozario and appeared to have him subdued, Chief Chell mentioned.
“However a mom, being a mom, got here to the help of her son to assist him, however in doing so she by accident knocked the Tasers out of his physique,” the chief mentioned. At that time, Mr. Rozario picked up the scissors and got here on the officers once more, the chief mentioned.
“That they had no alternative however to defend themselves, discharging their firearms,” Chief Chell mentioned.
He didn’t say what number of instances Mr. Rozario had been shot. Mr. Rozario’s household mentioned it was six instances. All the episode was captured by officers’ body-worn cameras, the chief mentioned. The footage was not instantly launched.
Mr. Rozario’s 17-year-old brother, Ushto Rozario, contradicted the police account in an interview. He mentioned his mom had been holding his brother in her arms all through the encounter.
“As my mom was nonetheless hugging him, they shot him with the Taser,” he mentioned. “So that they shot him with the Tasers, and my brother didn’t actually go down. So one of many cops pulled out a gun and shot him as my mom nonetheless hugging him.”
He mentioned the taking pictures was pointless.
“To start with, it was two law enforcement officials towards him,” he mentioned. “And my mom was already holding him, so he couldn’t actually do something.”
He added: “I don’t suppose a scissors is threatening to 2 law enforcement officials.”
Mr. Rozario was the third individual in New York to be fatally shot by the police up to now two months. In February, officers shot a person within the Arverne part of the Rockaways who, officers mentioned, pointed a BB gun on the officers who had been responding to a 911 name of photographs being fired. Final week, officers in Brooklyn fatally shot a person who, legislation enforcement officers mentioned, had himself been firing at a mugger who was working away.
Francis Rozario, Ushto and Win’s father, mentioned that the household had immigrated to New York from Bangladesh 10 years in the past and that Win’s dream was to affix the U.S. army. His plans had been held up, nevertheless, by a delay within the household’s acquiring their inexperienced playing cards, which the elder Mr. Rozario mentioned had been accredited final 12 months.
Ushto Rozario mentioned his brother, who graduated from John Adams Excessive College in Ozone Park two years in the past, had been depressed not too long ago, and his father mentioned Win had been hospitalized briefly final 12 months with psychological well being issues.
Nelima Efroze, who, along with her household, owns the home the place the taking pictures occurred and lives within the first-floor residence, mentioned the Rozarios had moved in about 4 years in the past and had been good tenants who had been quiet and all the time paid their lease on time.
“I by no means had any downside with them,” Ms. Efroze mentioned.
Kenneth Clark, a retired Fireplace Division store employee who lives two doorways away from the place the taking pictures occurred, mentioned he was in his automotive in entrance of a close-by church ready for a parking area to turn into accessible when he noticed a police squad automotive pull up round 1:30 p.m.
The officers went into the residence constructing “and the subsequent factor you knew you heard some loud arguing after which a shot, after which in a minute or two later you heard three or 4 extra photographs,” Mr. Clark, 70, mentioned.
In an effort to cut back the potential for 911 calls involving psychological well being crises to escalate into violent encounters with the police, New York Metropolis began a pilot program in spring 2021 below which psychological well being professionals and emergency medical employees reply to a portion of such calls in a small variety of police precincts.
Officers say this system has been efficient, and it has been expanded to extra precincts since then however remains to be not citywide. The 102nd Precinct, the place Mr. Rozario was shot, is among the many precincts the place it’s not in place.
Donovan Richards, the Queens borough president, mentioned in a press release that Mr. Rozario’s dying was “additional proof that each one ranges of presidency” should transfer with urgency to “dramatically enhance our investments in all-encompassing psychological well being providers.”
Sean Piccoli contributed reporting. Susan C. Beachy contributed analysis.