The family of a 13-year-old boy shot dead by police in downtown New York on Friday demands justice and accountability.
The office of New York Attorney General Letitia James is investigating the shooting of Nyah Mway, a Myanmar native of the Karen ethnic minority. Utica police said officers tackled the teen to the ground Friday and then shot him after a foot chase.
Police, who are conducting their own investigation, released bodycam video that shows a juvenile pointing an object at them before they take him to the ground. The object was a BB gun that appeared to be a real firearm, police said.
As the official investigation continued, Nyah Mway’s family and outraged community members demanded responsibility for the teenager’s death.
Daniel DeLoach/Utica Observer-Dispatch/USA Today Network via REUTERS
“We ultimately came to the United States to get an education and get good jobs here,” Lay Htoo, who identified himself as one of Nyah’s cousins, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. He hoped for a peaceful life after decades of unrest and violence in Myanmar.
The teen’s parents waited for coroners to release his body and wondered what would happen to the officers.
“They want them to stay in prison forever,” the cousin said.
During a vigil Saturday evening, Nyah Mway’s brother Lah said through an interpreter that he would not be satisfied until the officers were “put in jail,” Syracuse.com reported.
Others at the vigil questioned officials’ account of the shooting.
“It’s all wrong,” said Kay Klo, one of those present.
Police said Nyah Mway and another 13-year-old boy were arrested Friday night after they allegedly matched descriptions of suspects in an armed robbery that occurred in the same area the day before. Police said one was also seen walking in the road, a violation of the state traffic law.
The body camera video shows an officer saying he needs to search them for any weapons. As officers questioned the teens, one of them – later identified as Nyah Mway – ran away, turned and appeared to point a black object at them.
Officer Bryce Patterson caught up to Nyah Mway, tackled and punched him, and as the two struggled on the ground, Officer Patrick Husnay opened fire, according to body camera video. Utica Police Chief Mark Williams said at a news conference Saturday that the single shot struck the boy in the chest.
The teenager was taken to Wynn Hospital, where he died of his injuries.
Police said the object the boy was holding was later determined to be a BB or airgun that closely resembled a Glock 17 Gen 5 pistol with a detachable magazine. Police published an image showing that the device did not have an orange band on the barrel that many BB gun makers have added in recent years to distinguish their products from firearms.
Bystander video posted to Facebook and obtained by CBS News also showed an officer tackling the teen and beating him as two other officers arrived, then a gunshot rang out as the teen lay on the ground.
Regarding that video, police said in a statement that they were “aware of a video of the incident circulating on social media platforms, which does not depict the incident in its entirety.”
Husnay, Patterson and Officer Andrew Citriniti have been placed on paid administrative leave while the investigation continues.
Under New York law, the attorney general’s office investigates any death at the hands of law enforcement. The Utica Police Department’s investigation, meanwhile, will examine whether officers followed policy and training.
The police chief called the shooting “a tragic and traumatic incident for all involved.”
However, for Nyah’s cousin, Isabella Moo, the police story seemed to “criminalize him much more and protect the police officers.”
“The escalation of this should not have happened, and our police officers need to be trained much better or differently,” she told the AP in a telephone interview. “The city needs to be held accountable, and this should not have happened to any child.”
According to The Center, a nonprofit that helps refugees resettle, Utica has a population of 65,000, including more than 4,200 people from Myanmar.
Karens are among groups at war with the military rulers of Myanmar, the Southeast Asian country formerly known as Burma. The military ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021 and suppressed widespread nonviolent protests calling for a return to democratic rule.
Nyah’s family fled Myanmar about two decades ago to Thailand, where Nyah was born in a refugee camp, and then immigrated to the U.S. about nine years ago through a resettlement program, Htoo said. He said the teen’s father works at a convenience store.
Htoo said Nyah loved math, football and spending time with friends when he was not caring for his younger siblings. Interested in learning, he sometimes went to Bible study with his friends, even though his relatives are Buddhists, the cousin said.
The cousin said he was told that the boy told his mother on Friday night that he was going to a store to buy something, and that was the last she saw of him.
She hasn’t slept since, except for 10-minute naps, and her tears resume every time she wakes up, he said.
