Eighteen months after the fatal shooting of a 19-year-old Bangladeshi man named Win Rozario, two New York City police officers were charged with misconduct in the case. The charges came just days before the statute of limitations – the legal deadline for filing departmental misconduct charges – was set to expire on September 26.

The killing of Rozario in March 2024 had sparked protests by the Bangladeshi community in New York demanding that the officers involved in the shooting, Salvatore Alongi and Matthew Cianfrocco, be prosecuted.

Under public pressure, the New York Police released body-camera footage, six months after the shooting, that contradicted its initial account that suggested that Rozario had acted aggressively.

The Civilian Complaint Review Board, an oversight board of civilians that investigates complaints against New York City police officers, found that the officers had used excessive force during their encounter with Rozario, who was in mental distress.

The board substantiated eight allegations in total – four against each officer – including excessive force and abuse of authority.

The decision was significant given how rarely the review board substantiates complaints against officers. In recent years, the board substantiated only about 20% of cases, many of them coming after the introduction of body-worn cameras in 2019. In Win Rozario’s case, the review board voted to overrule an investigator, who had initially found the officers’ actions were within department guidelines.

Win’s father, Francis Rozario, welcomed the news of the charges against the officers but emphasised that the fight was far from over: “We are relieved that the CCRB has substantiated the charges against the officers, and that Commissioner Tisch has now served these charges” Francis Rozario said. “But in the past year and a half we have been learning how many tricks the NYPD plays to protect police so they aren’t fired when they kill our children.”

He added: “We need to ensure that these officers are fired, so that these officers will not be a threat to any other family.”

Win Rozario, who was dealing with mental health challenges, was killed on March 27, 2024.

At around 2 pm, he had called the 911 emergency line for help.

When police officers arrived at his home in Queens, New York, responding to a 911 call, Win’s brother Utsho answered the door and told the officers his brother was having “an episode”.

When the officers entered the apartment, Win Rozario panicked, and took out a pair of scissors from the kitchen drawer. Police officer Alongi fired his taser, a weapon that temporarily incapacitates the target by delivering electric shocks.. It caused Rozario to fall to the ground and his mother Ava Costa took the scissors away.

As Rozario got up and retrieved the scissors, Ava Costa continued to restrain her son as the officers ordered her to step aside. After Rozario charged at them with scissors, one of the officers fired his gun. Rozario was eventually shot four more times even though he made no movement towards the officers.

The entire incident took place within two minutes of the police arriving at the apartment.

Sustained campaign

The charges against the policemen came after months of sustained pressure by activists and Rozario’s family, who rallied outside City Hall, testified at hearings, and refused to let the case fade from public attention. Activists close to the case noted that it was rare for the revised board to overrule its own investigators and recommend charges against the officers.

“I don’t think we have seen South Asian people organise, testify and demand justice like we have done for the last 18 months,” said Kazi Fouzia, the director of organizing for Desis Rising Up and Moving or DRUM, which works to improve political engagement among working-class South Asians. “ It is because of the organising work we have done that we have some semblance of accountability.”

Activists like Kazi pointed out that the New York Police Department had a history of obstructing discipline against officers who kill New Yorkers, including at least three cases in the recent past. The police force investigation division’s inquiry, which was also supposed to conduct its enquiry into the incident, has given no updates to Win Rozario’s family in the past 18 months, activists said.

For younger Bangladeshi New Yorkers, who grew up under post-9/11 surveillance and came of age during national protests over police violence, Rozario’s killing reinforced scepticism about law enforcement – even as many in their community continued joining the force for economic reasons.

Mahtab Khan, an organiser with Muslims for Progress, pointed to the silence from the Bangladeshi American Police Association. Though founded to represent community interests within the department, no officers issued a statement about Rozario’s death.

“We’ve seen electeds preach about issues like police accountability, but now they’re silent for an incident like this when it happens to be for a Bangladeshi, South Asian household,” Khan said.

An estimated 300,000 people of Bangladeshi origin live in the US, with nearly a third of them in New York city, particularly in Jackson Heights in Queens, Kensington in Brooklyn, Parkchester in the Bronx, and in parts of Harlem in Manhattan. They are among economically disadvantaged groups and employment in the public sector, like the police force, has long been viewed as a pathway to economic stability in the community.

Win Rozario’s family is also calling for police to be removed from the city’s mental health response. It is also one of the campaign platforms of New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani who wants New York to follow the model of other cities that send mental health teams instead of the police to help people in crisis.

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