Noman Sabit: NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch has filed misconduct charges against two police officers involved in the fatal shooting of 19-year-old Win Rozario, who was killed during a mental health crisis at his Queens home in March, a police spokesperson said.
The move indicates that Tisch — who has signaled she will take a tougher stance on police misconduct than her predecessors — is unlikely to use her authority to block the prosecution of Officers Salvatore Alongi and Matthew Cianfrocco. The two officers face a total of eight charges, including excessive force and abuse of authority, in the March 27, 2024, killing. The Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) approved the charges last week.
The officers will now face a departmental trial, but whoever serves as police commissioner after the trial concludes will have the final say on any punishment.
“Tisch did the right thing by making sure the CCRB’s misconduct charges were served,” said Loyda Colón, executive director of the Justice Committee. “Now, a disciplinary trial date must be set so Alongi & Cianfrocco can be fired — and Attorney General James must indict and prosecute them. Anything less sends the message that NYPD officers can kill with impunity.”
Under a 2012 agreement between the NYPD and the CCRB, the police commissioner can “retain” cases and block the oversight board’s prosecutors from bringing officers to trial.
The decision marks a setback for the Police Benevolent Association (PBA), which represents the officers. The association opposed the CCRB’s involvement and said its own investigators had cleared the officers. However, the board rejected that internal recommendation and voted to substantiate the charges.
“They threw those findings away because they didn’t fit a predetermined outcome,” said PBA President Patrick Hendry. “The data shows that there are only a few board members who are ever willing to stand up and make an independent decision based on the facts and the law. The rest are either too afraid of the anti-police extremists, or they are extremists themselves.”
Tisch’s decision adds to the NYPD’s mixed record on police accountability. Administrative trials for misconduct often take years to resolve. For example, in the Trawick case, the trial didn’t begin until 2023 — four years after the shooting. Even when judges recommend firing officers, the final decision rests with the commissioner, as Tisch demonstrated in the Feliz case.
Earlier this year, she overruled a departmental judge’s recommendation and cleared Lt. Jonathan Rivera, who fatally shot Allan Feliz during a 2019 traffic stop in the Bronx. Judge Rosemarie Maldonado had recommended firing Rivera after finding he needlessly shot the unarmed 31-year-old as he tried to flee. But Tisch sided with Rivera’s claim of self-defense.
Her latest decision contrasts with former Commissioner Edward Caban, who in 2019 declined to discipline Officers Brendan Thompson and Herbert Davis after they fatally shot Kawaski Trawick during a mental health crisis in his Bronx apartment — despite the CCRB’s recommendation for termination.
Body-camera footage shows officers entering the Rozario family’s Ozone Park apartment during what relatives described as a mental health episode. Rozario pulled a pair of scissors from a kitchen drawer, prompting Alongi to use a Taser. After Rozario’s mother briefly took the scissors away, Rozario picked them up again. Cianfrocco then shot him in the arm, and seconds later fired several more shots into his chest as family members pleaded with officers not to shoot.
Authorities said Rozario had called 911 himself, pretending to be a parent and reporting erratic behavior. His family has since filed a lawsuit against the NYPD, accusing the officers of escalating the situation instead of de-escalating it.
By law, the state attorney general’s office must investigate all police-caused deaths, and Rozario’s case remains under review. Meanwhile, both officers have been reassigned to non-patrol duties.
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