Family from a A 13-year-old boy was shot and killed by police in the middle of New York there is a demand for justice and responsibility.
New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office is investigating the shooting of Nyah Mway, who was born in Myanmar and is a member of the Karen ethnic minority. Utica police said officers tackled the teenager to the ground and then shot him after a chase on Friday.
Police, who are conducting their own investigation, released body camera video showing the teenager aiming at an object before being taken to the ground. The object was a BB gun that looked like a real firearm, police said.
While an official investigation is underway, Nyah Mway’s family and angry community members are demanding responsibility for the teenager’s death.
Daniel DeLoach/Utica Observer-Dispatch/USA Today Network via REUTERS
“We came to the United States, finally, to get an education and get a good job here,” said Lay Htoo, who considers himself one of Nyah’s relatives, hoping for a peaceful life after decades of conflict and violence in Myanmar. , said. The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
The teenager’s parents are waiting for the medical examiner to release the body and wonder what the officers will do.
“He wants to spend the rest of his life in prison,” his cousin said.
On Saturday night, Nyah Mway’s sister, Lah, said through an interpreter that she will not be satisfied until the officer is “put in jail,” Syracuse.com reported.
Others at the vigil questioned the officer’s account of the shooting.
“There is no improvement,” said Kay Klo, one of those present at the meeting.
According to police, Nyah Mway and another 13-year-old boy were stopped on Friday night because they allegedly matched the description of a suspect in an armed robbery that occurred the previous day in the same area. Police said someone was walking on the road, violating state traffic laws.
Body camera video shows officers saying he had to cut the weapon. When officers questioned the youths, one of them – later identified as Nyah Mway – ran away, turned around and appeared to be showing a black object.
Officer Bryce Patterson caught up with Nyah Mway, tackled and punched him, and as the two wrestled on the ground, Officer Patrick Husnay opened fire, body camera video shows. Utica Police Chief Mark Williams said at a news conference Saturday that the shot struck the young man in the chest.
The teenager was taken to Wynn Hospital, where he died from his injuries.
Police said the boy’s possession was later determined to be a BB or pellet gun similar to a Glock 17 Gen 5 handgun with a detachable magazine. Police released images showing the device does not have the orange band on the barrel that many BB makers have added in recent years to distinguish their products from firearms.
A bystander’s video posted to Facebook and obtained by CBS News also showed an officer assaulting the teenager and punching him as two other officers arrived, followed by shots fired as the teenager lay on the ground.
Regarding the video, the police said in a statement that they are “aware of the video of the incident on social media platforms, which does not reflect the incident in its entirety.”
Husnay, Patterson and Officer Andrew Citriniti have been placed on paid administrative leave while the investigation progresses.
Under New York law, the attorney general’s office appears in every death at the hands of law enforcement. The Utica Police Department’s investigation, meanwhile, will explore whether officers followed policies and training.
The police chief called the shooting “a tragic and traumatic event for all involved.”
For Nyah’s cousin, Isabella Moo, the police narrative seems like “an attempt to further criminalize and try to protect police officers.”
“This escalation should not have happened, and our police officers should be trained better or very differently,” he told the AP in a telephone interview. “The city needs to be held accountable, and this shouldn’t be done to a child.”
Utica’s population of 65,000 includes more than 4,200 people from Myanmar, according to The Center, a nonprofit group that helps resettle refugees.
The Karens belong to a group that is at war with the military authorities of Myanmar, the Southeast Asian country formerly known as Burma. The army ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021 and quelled widespread nonviolent protests in order to return to democratic rule.
Nyah’s family fled about two decades ago from Myanmar to Thailand, where Nyah was born in a refugee camp, and then moved to the U.S. through a U.S. resettlement program about nine years ago, Htoo said. He said the father of the young boy worked in a shop.
Htoo said Nyah likes math, soccer and spending time with friends when she is not taking care of her sister. Interested in learning, he sometimes joins Bible studies with his friends, even though his family members are Buddhists, his relatives said.
The cousin said that on Friday night, the boy told his mother that he was going to the store to buy something, and that was the last time he saw her.
He has not slept since, except for 10-minute naps, he cries again every time he wakes up, he said.
