Win Rozario, 19, Killed After 911 Call For Mental Health Help

Source: Douglas Sacha / Getty

We’re very, very tired of seeing these types of stories.

BOSSIP has reported on countless incidents where men and women are suffering a mental health crisis and end up dead because police officers are either ill-equipped or violently biased against those who are obviously in a bad state.

According to a new report from CBS News, a 19-year-old Queens, New York, man named Win Rozario was gunned down after he dialed 911 for help when he was suffering one of the aforementioned episodes. Police say they were summoned to Ozone Park earlier this week and when they arrived, Rozario grabbed a pair of scissors and approached them. One of the officers deployed a taser but Rozario’s mother feared for her son and inadvertently knocked out the device’s prongs.

“At this point, the male picked up the scissors again, came at our officers, and they had no choice but to defend themselves, discharging their firearms,” NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said.

It goes without saying that the family is in shambles, particularly Win’s younger brother who watched his sibling die right in front of his eyes.

“I just lost my best friend, the only person that would really understand me,” Win’s brother Ushto Rozario told the New York Daily News. 

The Daily News also reports that Ushto noted some important discrepancies in the officers’ story and is calling for the release of the body camera footage.

“I didn’t see my mother pull out the Tasers,” said Utsho, adding that his brother didn’t reach for the scissors a second time, either. “It’s on the body camera, so we will see.”

Maybe if cities and police departments stop killing people and paying out billions of dollars in lawsuits, then they could employ the proper resources to actually help those in need.