Police fatally shot a 13-year-old boy Friday night following a foot chase through a residential area in the upstate New York city of Utica after the teen displayed what appeared to be a weapon, authorities said. Police later determined the teen was carrying a replica handgun.
Three officers arrested the two teens around 10 p.m. local time Friday as part of an investigation into several recent robberies, Utica police said in a news release Saturday night. While authorities were questioning the teens, one of them fled on foot, police said.
As the victim ran, police saw what “appeared to be a gun,” Utica Police Chief Mark Williams said during a Saturday morning news conference that was frequently interrupted by angry neighbors. One of the officers fired his gun, striking the teen, who was described as an Asian male.
“A Utica police officer ultimately discharged a firearm and struck the man during a ground struggle,” Williams said.
The teen, identified as 13-year-old Nyah Mway, received immediate first aid from officers on the scene and was taken to Wynn Hospital, where he died of his injuries, Williams said.
After the shooting, Williams said officers found a pellet gun that appeared to be a Glock 17 pistol with a detachable magazine.
“It turned out that this replica gun was actually a pellet gun,” Williams revealed.
Utica Police Department
The officer who fatally shot Mway was identified as Patrick Husnay, a six-year veteran of the department. Two other officers, Bryce Patterson and Andrew Citriniti, were also involved in the incident, police said.
Police said in their press release Saturday night that the three officers were patrolling the area in response to at least two recent robberies “in which the suspects were described as Asian males brandishing a black firearm and forcibly demanding and stealing property from their victims” — the most recent of which occurred Thursday.
The three officers approached the two teens because “they matched the descriptions of the robbery suspects and were in the immediate area of the previous robbery at almost the same time,” police said.
Police also released several minutes of footage from the body cameras of all three officers on Saturday evening, along with a photo of the replica gun that was recovered.
In the footage, the teen is identified by police as Mway runs away almost immediately after being stopped by officers. As he runs, he appears to briefly point to the pursuing officers what police believe was the replica gun.
About 15 to 20 seconds after the foot chase began, the footage shows Patterson tackling Mway on the sidewalk. As the two struggle on the ground, Husnay walks up to them and fires one shot.
CBS News has obtained a separate video of the incident that a neighbor captured on his cell phone. Regarding that video, police said in a statement that they were “aware of a video of the incident circulating on social media platforms, but which does not depict the incident in its entirety.”
The New York Attorney General’s Office also announced Saturday evening that it has opened an investigation into the shooting.
Utica police said it is conducting its own investigation. All three officers involved were placed on paid administrative leave.
An interpreter was present at the controversial press conference to translate for the victim’s family and community members. At one point, Utica Mayor Michael Galime took the microphone and called for calm.
“We understand how serious this situation is and want to ensure that every detail of it is understood,” Galime said.
The ethnicity of the victim’s family was not disclosed, but Utica has resettled large numbers of refugees in recent years. According to the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees, one of the largest numbers of Asian refugees resettled in Utica comes from Burma, including the Karen ethnic group, as well as other groups. Other Asian refugees include Vietnamese, Thai, Cambodian, Bosnian, Dominican and more, the center said. Just over 19 percent of the once rapidly declining industrial city is now foreign-born, the center said.
“This tragedy reminds us of the tremendous challenges facing our community, especially our law enforcement partners who work tirelessly to keep our streets safe,” Dr. Kathleen Davis, interim superintendent of the Utica City School District, said in a statement Saturday.
Utica, a city of about 65,000 inhabitants, is about an hour’s drive from Syracuse.
