Demonstrators protested Tuesday evening, days after the NYPD announced they would not discipline the police officers involved in the death of Kawaski Trawick.
“Mayor [Eric] Adams should be ashamed of himself as a father and as a Black man for not firing the police who murdered my son,” said organizer Keith Fuller as he read a statement from the Trawick family.
Trawick was killed by police in April 2019. His death sparked outrage from advocates who questioned why police did not calm down the situation.
The rally came after NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban cleared the responding officers of any and all wrongdoing just a few days before the fifth anniversary of Trawick’s death.
“This decision to not fire the cops really scares my family,” said Utsho Rozario.
The family of Win Rozario joined the rally Tuesday to show their support.
Win died in March after he called 911 for help while suffering from a mental health crisis.
Advocates at the rally said officers should not respond to these types of calls.
“If it happens to our family, it could happen to yours too,” Utsho Rozario said.
Win Rozario was tased, shot and killed after police say he lunged at officers with scissors while they were trying to get him help.
This is a similar police enforcement style that led to Trawick’s death.
Adams responded to questions Tuesday about transparency from his office regarding investigations into police conduct.
“Any time you have a shooting of this magnitude, of any nature, that’s involving police officers, you go back and do a review, find out what you can do better, what you learned from it,” Adams said.
The investigation into Win Rozario’s death is ongoing, but his family said Tuesday that they do not even know the names of the officers involved.
“There’s a process and at the heart of the process, the commissioner is following the procedures of that process,” Adams said.
Meanwhile, Caban’s announcement in the Trawick case comes after the Bronx District Attorney’s Office declined to bring charges. An internal NYPD investigation also found no wrongdoing.