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Fatal NYPD shooting of Queens teen holding scissors spurs outrage over cops' actions

Graham Rayman, Rocco Parascandola, Elizabeth Keogh and Josephine Stratman, New York Daily News on

Published in News & Features

NEW YORK — As new details emerge on a teen’s fatal shooting by an NYPD officer on Wednesday, outrage has bubbled up over the tactics used by the officers who responded to a 911 call made by the teen himself.

Win Rozario’s death has also raised broader questions about how the city responds to mental health emergencies, fueling criticism that the city’s use of police officers as de-facto mental health emergency response teams is at best clumsy, and at worst, deadly.

“This could not have been a more stark example of something that should not happen,” said Ruth Lowenkron of New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. “The young man himself called 911 for help. Here’s someone thinking he’s going to get help and feel better, and instead he’s killed within moments of the police arriving. There really aren’t words to describe it.”

His death is the 20th killing of a mentally ill person by police in the city since 2015, Lowenkron said — a number that doesn’t include those who’ve been injured, arrested or committed to a hospital over family’s objections.

Wednesday’s incident played out over just a couple minutes, according to police.

Both the 19-year-old Rozario, in the throes of a mental health episode, and his mother called 911, a police official said.

 

This wasn’t the first time — cops had twice before responded to calls from the family. In October, Rozario had been transported to a hospital after medical personnel had responded to the home.

Around 1:40 p.m., police arrived at the residence and knocked at the door. Within two minutes after they were let in, Rozario had the scissors in his hand, a police official said.

“It just spiraled out of control,” the official said.

The officers tasered him, and his mom hugged him and pulled out one of the prongs, police said. Rozario then picked up the pair of kitchen scissors and came at the cops — who then shot at him, according to police.

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