The police shooting death Wednesday of Queens resident Win Rozaro has reignited calls from advocates to bar the NYPD from responding to mental health crises — and for the officers involved in the deadly incident to be fired.
Rozaro himself had called 911 for help on March 27 while experiencing his mental health crisis, prompting a response to his home on 103rd Street in Ozone Park from the 102nd Precinct. Within minutes, he was dead, having been Tased and then fatally shot when he apparently charged at the officers with a pair of scissors.
Now, Rozaro’s family and advocacy groups are demanding justice and answers as to how the teenager’s cry for help turned into his demise.
From the NYPD perspective, the officers had no choice. After cops initially subdued Rozaro with Tasers after he charged at them, he became revived after his mother knocked the Taser prods away from him — prompting Rozaro to pick up the scissors and charge at the officers a second and final time.
“The mother, being a mother, came to aid her son. By doing so, she accidentally knocked the tasers out of his body,” Chief of Patrol John Chell said Wednesday. “At this point, the male picked up the scissors again, came at our officers. They had no choice but to defend themselves, discharging their firearms.”
However, Communities United for Police Reform (CPR) said this was no excuse. Calling the killing senseless and stating that the NYPD should have no place responding to mental health issues.