The family of a 13-year-old boy who was fatally shot by police in central New York on Friday is demanding justice and responsibility.
The shooting of Nyah Mway, a Karen ethnic minority member born in Myanmar, is being investigated by New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office. According to Utica police, officers pushed the boy to the ground before shooting him after a foot chase on Friday.
Police, who are conducting their investigation, revealed body camera footage showing a kid appearing to point an object at them before being taken to the ground. Police claimed the object was a BB gun that seemed to be an actual handgun.
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While official investigations continued, Nyah Mway’s family and furious community members demanded accountability for the teen’s death.
“We came to the United States, finally, to get an education and to get good jobs here,” Lay Htoo, one of Nyah’s cousins, told the Associated Press over the phone.
The teen’s parents were waiting for medical examiners to release his body while worrying about what would happen to the police.
“They want them to be in prison forever,” the relative explained.
At a vigil Saturday night, Nyah Mway’s brother, Lah, said through an interpreter that he would not be content until the officers “are put in jail,” according to Syracuse.
Others at the vigil questioned the official story of the incident.
“None of it adds up,” said Kay Klo, one of the attendees.
According to police, Nyah Mway and another 13-year-old boy were stopped Friday night because they reportedly matched the descriptions of suspects in an armed robbery that occurred the day before in the same neighborhood. According to police, one was also walking on the road, which is a violation of state traffic laws.
The body camera footage shows an officer telling them that he needs to pat them down for any weapons. While cops were interviewing the youths, one of them, later identified as Nyah Mway, rushed away, turned around, and appeared to point a black object at them.
Officer Bryce Patterson caught up with Nyah Mway, tackled and hit him, and while the two struggled on the ground, Officer Patrick Husnay opened fire, according to body camera footage. At a news conference on Saturday, Utica Police Chief Mark Williams said the kid was hit in the chest by a single shot.
The teen was rushed to Wynn Hospital, where he died from his injuries.
According to police, the child was clutching a BB or pellet gun that looked like a Glock 17 Gen 5 handgun with a detachable magazine. Police shared an image of the gadget, which did not have the orange ring on the barrel that many BB gun manufacturers have adopted in recent years to differentiate their wares from weapons.
A bystander video taken on Facebook and acquired by CBS News also showed an officer tackling and hitting the adolescent as two other cops arrived, followed by a gunshot while the teen was on the ground.
In a statement, police stated that they were “aware of a video of the incident circulating on social media platforms, which does not portray the incident in its entirety.”
Husnay, Patterson, and Officer Andrew Citriniti were placed on paid administrative leave while the investigations continue.
Under New York law, the attorney general’s office investigates every fatality at the hands of law enforcement. Meanwhile, the Utica Police Department will investigate whether officers followed procedures and received proper training.
The police chief described the shooting as “a tragic and traumatic incident for all involved.”
To Nyah’s cousin, Isabella Moo, the police story appeared to be “trying to criminalize him a lot more and protecting the police officers.”
“The escalation of this should not have happened, and our police officers need to be trained a lot better or differently,” she told the Associated Press in a phone interview. “The city needs to be held accountable, and this should not have been done to any child.”
According to The Center, a nonprofit organization that assists with refugee resettlement, Utica’s population of 65,000 includes over 4,200 Myanmar refugees.
Karens are among the communities fighting Myanmar’s military government, the Southeast Asian country formerly known as Burma. In 2021, the army deposed Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government and crushed huge peaceful protests calling for democracy to be restored.
Nyah’s family escaped Myanmar approximately two decades ago and settled in Thailand, where she was born in a refugee camp, before moving to the United States through a resettlement program around nine years ago, according to Htoo. He stated that the teen’s father works at a convenience store.
Htoo said Nyah enjoyed math, soccer, and spending time with friends when he wasn’t caring for his younger siblings. He enjoyed learning and occasionally went to Bible study with his buddies, even though his family is Buddhist, according to his cousin.
The cousin said he was told that on Friday night, the youngster told his mother he was going to the store to buy something, and that was the last time she saw him.
She hasn’t slept since, except for 10-minute naps, and her cries return whenever she awakens, he added.
Source: CBS