The city’s police oversight board voted 9 to 3 last week in the Win Rozario case to substantiate improper use of deadly force with a firearm for both officers involved – the only penalty for which is termination from the NYPD, records of the controversial vote reviewed by the News show.
Nine Civilian Complaint Review Board members, including interim chair Dr. Mohammad Khalid, voted to fire Officers Salvatore Alongi and Matthew Cianfrocco for shooting and killing Rozario, 19, who was in the midst of a mental health episode on March 27 2024 in his Ozone Park apartment.
Three board members – retired NYPD commanders Frank Dwyer and Joseph Fox and former public relations executive Pat Smith, a mayoral appointee – voted the officers’ actions were entirely within Police Department guidelines.
The new details come amid continuing controversy over the vote, in which the board took the unusual step of overruling its own investigators.
The voting breakdown shows a somewhat less uniform split in the board on the allegations comprising the sequence of events that led up to the shooting – with the board clearing Alongi 12 votes to 0 of improper actions in his initial use of his Taser electronic stun gun.
They board also cleared Cianfrocco of his initial use of a stun gun 10 votes to 2 but found 9 to 3 that Alongi acted improperly on the second use of his stun gun and recommended he lose 20 vacation days.
On abuse of authority for the aggressive way the officers entered the home, the board voted 7 to 5 to penalize the two cops 10 vacation days.
On abuse of authority related to the detention of the family in the aftermath, the board voted 6 to 5 not to substantiate those allegations with one member deciding a decision could not be made to clear the officers.
On the aggressive commands the officers gave – Cianfrocco shouted “Get the f–k out of the way now!” to Rozario’s mother as she tried to intervene – the board voted 11-1 to clear the officers.
The News reported Monday that the board’s vote to substantiate the allegations overruled the conclusions of the agency’s own investigators, who had found the officers acted within NYPD guidelines on all 16 allegations.
Advocates for the Rozario family have focused on their contention the officers acted recklessly and violated department training and regulations on handling the mentally ill. On Thursday, the family is expected to appear at a rally outside police headquarters to press their case that the two officers should be charged and fired.
“The vote count clearly shows that the overwhelming majority of CCRB board members followed the facts to substantiate numerous acts of egregious and reckless misconduct by Alongi and Cianfrocco, that led to the killing of a teenager in his own home, in front of his mother and brother,” said Loyda Colón, representative of Win Rozario’s family and executive director of the Justice Committee.
“Unsurprisingly, the only members who didn’t vote to substantiate allegations were the NYPD’s board representatives and an Eric Adams appointee.”
But the Board’s decision to break with the findings of its investigators is remarkably rare, a fact highlighted again Wednesday by an analysis compiled by the Police Benevolent Association which shows the board has overruled its staff recommendations just three-tenths of a percentage point of the time over the past two years.
From August 2023 through August 2025, the board has just substantiated 54 of 17,576 allegations when investigators found the officer’s actions were within guidelines, the PBA analysis shows.
“The board simply rubber-stamps its investigators’ findings in almost every other case. But in this case, they threw those findings away because they didn’t fit a predetermined outcome,” PBA President Patrick Hendry said.
“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. Either way, they have deprived these police officers and all police officers of the fairness guaranteed by the (City) Charter.”
Rozario was in the midst of a mental health episode when he called 911 to ask for help. The sequence that followed unfolded over two harried minutes and was captured on NYPD body camera video.
Alongi and Cianfrocco arrived and shouted commands at Rozario, who picked a pair of scissors and put them down when his mother tried to calm the situation. The offices used their tasers several times.
Rozario then picked up the scissors again and advanced toward the officers. Cianfrocco fired one shot, then four more shots, each bullet striking Rozario who died at the scene.
“Watching this (video of the encounter) reinforces my impression that it is very difficult for civilian people without police training or experience to judge situations like this,” said Rae Downes Koshetz, a former NYPD trial commissioner now in private practice.
“For example, as to unlawful entry, what are cops supposed to do where they’re called to the scene of an emergency? And aren’t cops given leeway in the language they use in a tense situation like this? Dealing with people who are mentally ill is incredibly challenging for cops, who must make quick decisions in fast-moving situations like this one.”
The CCRB findings are recommendations subject to a final decision by the Police Commissioner. The NYPD and the state Attorney General’s office are conducting separate probes of the encounter.