NYPD commissioner serves charges on officers who fatally shot 19-year-old Win Rozario
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch has served misconduct charges against two officers who
The move means Tisch — who has signaled she would take a harder line on police misconduct than her predecessors — is unlikely to invoke her authority to block the prosecution of officers Salvatore Alongi and Matthew Cianfrocco, who collectively face eight counts, including excessive force and abuse of authority, in the March 27, 2024, killing. The Civilian Complaint Review Board approved the charges last week.
The officers will now face a departmental trial, but whoever is serving as police commissioner after the trial ends will have the final say on any discipline imposed.
Under a 2012 agreement between the NYPD and 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, which represents the officers. The association pushed back against the CCRB’s involvement and said its own investigators had cleared the officers. The board ultimately overruled that internal recommendation and voted to substantiate the charges.
Tisch’s decision adds to a mixed history on police accountability.
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 at his Bronx apartment — despite the CCRB’s push for termination.
Body-camera footage shows officers entering the Rozario family’s Ozone Park apartment during what his family described as a mental health episode. Rozario pulled a pair of scissors from a kitchen drawer, prompting Alongi to fire a Taser. After Rozario's mother momentarily took the scissors away, Rozario picked them back up. 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.
Rozario had called 911 on himself, posing as a parent and reporting erratic behavior, authorities said. His family has since filed a lawsuit against the NYPD, saying the officers escalated the situation rather than de-escalating it.
Administrative trials for police misconduct often take years to resolve. In the Trawick case, for example, the trial didn't begin until 2023 — four years after the shooting. Even when judges recommend firing officers, NYPD commissioners have final say, as Tisch demonstrated in the Feliz case.
The state attorney general’s office, which is required by law to investigate all deaths caused by police, is still reviewing Rozario’s case. Both officers have been reassigned to non-patrol duties.
Advocates for the family did not immediately return a request for comment.
