The family of a 13-year-old boy who was shot and killed by police Friday in downtown New York is calling for justice and accountability.
New York Attorney General Letitia James' office is investigating the shooting of Nyah Mway, who was born in Myanmar and is a member of its Karen ethnic minority. Utica police said officers tackled the teenager to the ground and then shot him after a foot chase Friday.
Police, who are conducting their own investigation, released body camera video showing a young man appearing to point an object at them before throwing it to the ground. The object was a BB gun that looked like a real firearm, police said.
As official investigations continued, Nyah Mway's family and outraged community members demanded accountability for the teenager's death.
Daniel DeLoach/Utica Observer-Dispatch/USA Today Network via REUTERS
“We came to the United States, finally, to get the education and get the good jobs here,” said Lay Htoo, who identified himself as one of Nyah's cousins, hoping for a peaceful life after decades of conflict and violence in Myanmar. Associated Press in a telephone interview.
The teenager's parents were waiting for medical examiners to release his body and wondered what would become of the officers.
“They want them in jail forever,” the cousin said.
At a vigil Saturday night, Nyah Mway's brother, Lah, said through an interpreter that he would not be satisfied until the officers “go into jail,” Syracuse.com reported.
Others at the vigil questioned officials' account of the shooting.
“None of this adds up,” said Kay Klo, one of the meeting participants.
According to police, Nyah Mway and another 13-year-old boy were arrested Friday night because they allegedly fit the descriptions of suspects in an armed robbery that took place the day before in the same area. Police said one was also walking on the road, a violation of state traffic law.
Body camera video shows an officer saying he has to pat them down to search for weapons. While officers were questioning the teenagers, one of them, later identified as Nyah Mway, ran away, turned and appeared to point a black object at them.
Officer Bryce Patterson found Nyah Mway, tackled and punched him, and as the two wrestled on the ground, Officer Patrick Husnay opened fire, body camera video showed. Utica Police Chief Mark Williams said at a news conference Saturday that the single shot struck the young man in the chest.
The teenager was taken to Wynn Hospital, where he died from his injuries.
Police said the object the boy was holding was later determined to be a BB or pellet gun that closely resembled a Glock 17 Gen 5 pistol with a detachable magazine. Police released an image showing the device did not have an orange band on the barrel that many BB gun manufacturers have added in recent years to distinguish their products from firearms.
Video by a bystander posted on Facebook and obtained by CBS News also showed an officer tackling the teenager and punching him as two other officers arrived, then a gunshot rang out when the teenager was 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 portray the incident in its entirety.”
Husnay, Patterson and Officer Andrew Citriniti were placed on paid administrative leave as the investigations progressed.
Under New York law, the attorney general's office reviews every law enforcement death. Meanwhile, the Utica Police Department's investigation will explore whether officers followed policies and training.
The police chief called the shooting “a tragic and traumatic incident for all involved.”
To Nyah's cousin Isabella Moo, however, the police narrative appeared to “try to criminalize him a lot more and try to protect the police officers”.
“The escalation of this should not have happened, and our police officers need to be trained much better or very differently,” he told the AP in a telephone interview. “The city needs to be held accountable, and this should not have been done to any 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 Karen are among the 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 repressed widespread nonviolent protests seeking a 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 immigrated through a resettlement program to the U.S. about nine years ago, Htoo said. He said the teenager's father works at a convenience store.
Htoo said Nyah enjoyed math, soccer and spending time with friends when she wasn't taking care of her younger siblings. Interested in learning, he sometimes attended Bible study with his friends, even though his relatives are Buddhists, the cousin said.
The cousin said he was told that on Friday night, the boy informed his mother 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, her tears restarting every time she wakes up, she said.
