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The Police Shootings Haunting New York’s South Asian Community

Two young Bangladeshi American men were shot by the NYPD. One of them died. Their families are demanding justice and reform.

Activists, members of the Bangladeshi community, and others turn out for a demonstration and vigil for Win Rozario on March 29, 2024, in New York City.

On March 27, the second anniversary of Win Rozario’s death at the hands of the New York Police Department, his family gathered at Diversity Plaza in Jackson Heights for a public rally. It was one of the first warm days of spring, and Notun Eva Costa, Win’s mother, stood behind a banner reading “Fire Officers Cianfrocco and Alongi.” She was flanked by South Asian elders chanting “Justice for Win Rozario!”

There were a handful of speeches, including one from Public Advocate Jumanee Williams. After each speech concluded, the event’s organizers, who were part of the social justice group known as Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM), dutifully reminded the rally’s attendees to take photos, post them on social media, and tag Mayor Zohran Mamdani and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch. Eva, a middle-aged woman with slicked hair and a round face, stood before the cameras with her eyes fixed on the ground.

Behind her stood a taller woman with a comforting hand on Eva’s shoulder. She had a sharp chin, reddish hair, and redder eyes from crying. Juli Chakraborty looked around the crowd frantically, as if trying to determine whether this, too, would become her future as a mother of a son, Jabez Chakraborty, who had nearly been killed by the NYPD.

Roughly two years apart, two Bangladeshi American men were shot by NYPD officers following mental distress–related 911 calls. In the case of 19-year-old Win Rozario, the bullet wounds proved fatal. Twenty-two-year-old Chakraborty survived five gunshots. There is a likeness to the tragedies and their aftermath, including the fact that the victims were both from a small Christian Bangladeshi contingent in Queens. “Although police brutality has been, tragically, experienced heavily by Black and other brown communities, it has not as frequently resulted in officer-caused killings in South Asian communities, particularly for Bangladeshi Christians,” Rebecca Chowdhury, an organizer of DRUM, told me.

Following the shooting of Jabez Chakraborty, Mamdani signed an executive order to form the Office of Community Safety—a partial realization of his campaign promise to mitigate mental-health and other emergencies through non-police means. But the willingness of police, city officials, and mental-health professionals to cross-collaborate has long been a fraught and stalled process, resulting in police-induced deaths of New Yorkers like Win Rozario. As a result, this constituency of South Asians, who had hugely mobilized behind Mamdani’s candidacy, is once again organizing to demand even more reform from their city and its mayor.

On March 27, 2024, Win Rozario, a broad-shouldered, square-faced 19-year-old, woke up feeling exceptionally depressed. According to Eva, he confided in her about his suicidal ideation that morning. She knew to take him seriously; her son had attempted suicide before. Win’s father, Francis Rozario, was already at work at JFK Airport. Concerned that she might need help if his condition worsened, his mother asked Win’s 17-year-old younger brother to stay home from school. Eva then spent two hours comforting Win until he said, “I am not going to have these thoughts anymore.” He got up to shower. Eva briefly stepped out of their home in Ozone Park, Queens, to a nearby church to pray for her son and light a candle. Then she bought him a slice of cake to lift his mood. When she returned, Win told her he had called 911—neither she nor his brother had heard him do so. When NYPD officers knocked on their pale-yellow door, Win said he was feeling much better. Eva asked her younger son to answer and tell the officers they were no longer needed. She later told me, “We didn’t know you don’t have to let them inside.”

It turned out that the two officers, Matthew Cianfrocco and Salvatore Alongi, had been in the apartment before, having been called after one of Win’s previous suicide attempts. On that occasion, they spent 30 minutes speaking with him and managed to talk him down. Recalling that meeting to the Office of Special Investigations (OSI), Officer Cianfrocco described Win as a “non-threatening kid” who talked about his despair over being prevented from his dream of joining the US military by his family’s lack of a green card. Eva has since maintained that her son was not mentally unwell but circumstantially depressed because of the absence of the green card.

Upon entering the apartment for the second and last time, Cianfrocco instantly remembered Win. But that didn’t stop what happened next.

Footage from Cianfrocco’s body camera captured the scene. Win’s brother opens the door and says, “He is having an episode.” Alongi asks, “Is he bipolar? Schizo?” Win’s brother says he does not know. As officers enter and head upstairs, Win retreats to the........

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