NYC NOW - May 9, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: May 9, 2024

At least three Columbia University students are suing the school for access to their dorms, reports WNYC's Ramsey Khalifeh. The students were disciplined for their involvement in pro-Palestinian protests. In other news, New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks is vigorously defending the DOE's response to anti-Semitism in public schools. Meanwhile, the city's Department of Investigation is examining claims of NYPD officials misusing the department's official social media accounts. Also, the owners of the now-shuttered Manhattan beauty supply store, Rehana Cosmetics, have been charged with criminal possession of more than one million dollars in stolen goods. Additionally, some New York City leaders are urging Albany lawmakers to approve reforms to the way agencies contract outside companies for public works projects. Finally, family members of 19-year-old Win Rozario, who was shot and killed by police last month in Queens, are speaking out. Rozario, described by family as experiencing a mental health crisis, had called 911 himself. WNYC's Bahar Ostadan joined the family as they gathered at City Hall on Wednesday.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Thursday, May 9th. Here's the midday news from Lance Lucky. At least three Columbia University students are suing their school to get access to their dorms. WNYC's Ramsey-Khalifa reports the students were disciplined for their involvement in the pro-Palestinian protests. Columbia University is an Ivy League school, but it's also a landlord, and students who are locked out of their dorms following the protests are arguing in litigation that they were unlawfully evicted.

Court records show senior Sebastian Jimenez claims he was locked out of his dorm just a day after he was arrested by the NYPD during their raid of Hamilton Hall. His case has been settled with Columbia, but two other students are in a similar situation and are represented by the same nonprofit that helped Jimenez. Colombia did not respond to a request for comment. City Schools Chancellor David Banks is vigorously defending the DOE's response to anti-Semitism in public schools. WNYC's Jessica Gould reports on his testimony before Congress yesterday. Banks says there were some troubling incidents of anti-Semitism in city schools, but says leaders have handled them.

We have removed discipline or are in the process of disciplining at least a dozen staff and school leaders, including removing a principal in the middle of a school year. Some congressional Republicans say Banks hasn't done enough, noting the principal who was removed from a school has not yet been fired. Following some heated exchanges, Banks said he'd like to see Congress offer some proactive solutions instead of what he calls gotcha hearings. The city's Department of Investigation is looking into claims that NYPD officials are misusing the department's official social media accounts.

Top police officials like Chief of Patrol, John Shell, have used social media for months to publicly criticize people, including journalists, a judge, and a city council member. City Council Speaker Adrian Adams demanded the city look into whether such behavior violates the law last week. The DOI didn't provide details about how it would investigate the matter, and the NYPD didn't respond to a request for comment. A now shuttered beauty supply store in Manhattan was indicted for allegedly being involved in a retail theft operation. Rahana Cosmetics on 6th Avenue and its owners, B.B. Rahana Khan and Aaron Khan, were charged with criminal possession of more than a million dollars in stolen goods. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg says going after repeat offenders is part of a broader strategy to crack down on retail theft. The defendant Rihanna's cosmetics was well known to shoplifters who would willingly bring them stolen items. We allege that created a motive for shoplifters to steal and thus that the defendants, we allege, were drivers of,

crime. Attorneys for the cons didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Some New York City leaders are fed up with the red tape and bureaucracy. They say delays big construction projects across the five boroughs, from new sewers to public bathrooms to sea walls. Now officials are calling for lawmakers in Albany to approve reforms to the way agencies hire outside companies to build public works. Thomas Foley, Commissioner of the City's Department of Design and Construction, says regulations require his agency to hire a company to design a project and then another company to physically build it, which causes delays. We're changing the fabric of the city.

Literally, as we speak, these are very, very complex projects, and the teams need to be working together from the onset of the project. City officials will be in Albany next week to rally for the reforms. Stay close. There's more after the break. On WNYC, I'm Michael Hill. Members of a 19-year-old shot and killed by police last month, and Queens are speaking out. When Rosaria was having what family members described as a mental health crisis, when he himself called 911. WNIC's Baha'Osterdome was with the family yesterday as they assembled at City Hall.

She joins us now. Bahar, good morning. Remind us what happened here? So like you said, Michael, when Rosario called 911 himself while he was in mental distress. in his apartment in Ozone Park, Queens. Police arrived within two minutes. At first, they said they tried to get Wynn help, get him into custody. They said that he pulled scissors out of a drawer and lunged at officers, that they then tased him,

and his mom knocked the tasers out of his body. What police said at the time, NYPD Chief of Patrol John Schell said, police had no choice, that's a quote, but to defend themselves. Of course, you know, we later learned that there was a lot more to that story. Has that version of events changed at all since we first reported this story? Yes. So now the state attorney general released body worn camera footage of the shooting. And I have to say, Michael, this was one of the most disturbing videos I've seen. It shows the two officers walking into the kitchen, immediately escalating the situation. It's Wynne's mother, their Bangladeshi family, she doesn't speak English,

and Wyn's 17-year-old brother. When sees the officers, he pulls the kitchen scissors out of the drawer and comes toward them. And the rest of the video is sort of, you know, his mom holding him very tightly, stopping him from coming toward the officers, removing the scissors. from his hand and really begging the officers not to shoot her son. The officers Taze Wynn, you know, regardless of the fact that Wynn's mother has been glued to him essentially this entire time. At one point, his younger teen brother is trying to pry her away from Wynn as officers are screaming, you know, to get Wynn's mother and brother out of the way as they're pointing guns at him. You know, his teenage brother begs officers, please

don't shoot my mom. I'm so sorry. Ultimately, this entire situation, you know, takes place within two minutes and the officers shoot win five times in his kitchen with his mother and brother washing. So what is the family saying? Yesterday they rallied outside City Hall. They're demanding the two police officers, Matthew, Chianofroko and Salvatore Alonji, be suspended without pay and then fired. They're also asking the state attorney general to prosecute the officers for murder. The state attorney general does have the power to bring down an indictment, which they've done recently in another police killing. Wyn's mother looked at, you know, a small crowd in some press and said she wanted the world to know more about her child than the fact that.

he was killed by police. She described him as polite, quiet, you know, a diligent student. She said that he planned to join the military one day and wanted to save up enough money to buy a farm. Wyn's dad stood beside her also and said that he thought, you know, police would not have treated a family that was wealthy, a white family this way. He described police treating his family like, quote, animals. And here's what Wins. brother who 17 Ucho said. Anyone that wasn't a cop did what Alangi and Francisco did, they would have already been in jail. Right.

After my brother was killed, the NYPD treated me and my mother like we were criminals. So Ucho, who's in high school, said him and his mom were interrogated at the local police precinct for several hours right after their, you know, his brother was killed. the family was locked outside their house, they say, for 48 hours without access to, you know, the parents' medication. Their cat was stuck in their house. Ucho said that, you know, they pleaded with officers to let them back in to feed their cat who was stuck inside to no avail. So certainly, you know, it was a traumatic experience, not only the shooting itself, but the days after. Rosario's case is being compared to that of a Bronx man, Kauai.

Tawak, Behar, remind us what happened in that case? So this was a man also, you know, in mental distress. He was locked out of his apartment. The fire department let him back in. Eventually the police were called. He, you know, like Wynn was standing in his kitchen at the time when two police officers entered his apartment. He was standing near his stove with a bread knife and a broomstick.

There was this back and forth that ensued and one of the officers shot and killed him. That launched a five-year process between the NYPD and the city's police oversight agency and Treywick's parents flying back and forth from Georgia, where the family's from, to demand similarly that the officers get fired. Ultimately, the final decision power sits with the NYPD commissioner, who just last month said the officers acted, quote, within the law, and they would not be disciplined. do the Rosario's in the Wyn Rosario case, do they expect anything different? They're certainly hoping for something different. You know, Wyn's father brought up Treywick's case and said he hoped his family wouldn't have to go through the same thing for many years. Definitely what ties these two cases together and other cases we've covered is that, you know, these are moments where New Yorkers and or their family members call 311 or 911 or 9-1 because they need a, emergency mental health response. And ultimately they don't receive it. You know, they call in vain. The NYPD responds to about 15,000 mental health emergency calls every month, Michael. For most New Yorkers

and their loved ones, 911 is the entry point for getting care during a mental health crisis, even when, you know, they're aware that police officers may shoot and kill, you know, to that end, this is what Wynn's mom said yesterday through a translator. I tried to protect my son. I begged the police not to shoot, but the police still killed him. So every officer in these cases we've been talking about did receive the NYPD's formal training in how to respond to people in crisis. But advocates, and of course these families say that's not enough. Yeah, Bahar, thank you.

We have so many more questions for this case. And of course, we'll be following for our listeners as well. Bahar Osterdon on this Wyn Rosario case. Bahar, thank you. Thanks, Michael. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day,

for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. See you this evening.