Community in uproar as Utica police release video of officer fatally shooting teen on ground

The mother of the 13-year-old boy shot by Utica police cries after listening to a translator inside City Hall in Utica, New York, June 29, 2024. Photo by Daniel DeLoach/Utica Observer- Dispatch/USA Today Network via Reuters

On Wednesday, Nyah Mway finished high school in central New York, where her family moved about a decade ago as refugees from Myanmar, relatives said.

The 13-year-old was fatally shot by police on Friday night after he allegedly pointed what turned out to be a pellet gun at them during a foot chase.

LEARN MORE: New York police fatally shot 13-year-old boy holding pellet gun, authorities say

Struggling to come to terms with his death, his anguished relatives and outraged members of their immigrant community demanded Sunday that justice be done for him and police be held accountable.

“We ultimately came to the United States to get an education and get good jobs here” and in hopes of a peaceful life after decades of conflict and violence in Myanmar, said Lay Htoo, who identified himself as one of Nyah’s cousins.

But instead of celebrating the teen's rise to high school, his parents waited for medical examiners to release his body and wondered what would happen to the police.

“They want them to stay in prison forever,” the cousin said in a telephone interview.

As the state attorney general and the Utica Police Department investigate the shooting, Nyah's relatives and other local members of the Karen ethnic minority from Burma said they planned to meet Sunday afternoon with Utica Mayor Michael P. Galime. A message seeking comment was sent to the mayor's office.

For now, the officers are on paid administrative leave.

The shooting took place Friday evening in Utica, a former industrial city where thousands of refugees from various countries have settled in recent decades, creating something of a renaissance in a rundown Rust Belt center. The city's population of 65,000 includes more than 4,200 people from Myanmar, according to The Center, a nonprofit that helps with refugee resettlement.

Police said Nyah and another 13-year-old boy were arrested Friday night because they matched the descriptions of suspects in an armed robbery in the same area Thursday and because a teenager was crossing outside of a crosswalk. The police department declined Sunday to release the armed robbery report and the suspect description, citing the ongoing investigation.

Body camera video shows a police officer saying he has to search them to check if they have weapons. Then one of the teens, identified as Nyah, runs away, turns around and appears to point a black object at them.

Officers believed it was a handgun, police said, but it was later determined to be a pellet gun closely resembling a Glock 17 Gen 5 pistol. with a removable magazine. Police released an image showing the device did not have the orange stripe on the barrel that many pellet gun manufacturers have added in recent years to distinguish their products from firearms.

Officer Bryce Patterson caught up with Nyah, tackled him to the ground and punched him. As the two fought 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 gunshot hit the young man in the chest.

A video from a witness posted on Facebook also shows a police officer tackling the teen and hitting him as two other officers arrive, then a gunshot rings out while the teen is on the ground.

Under New York State law, the Attorney General's Office investigates every death attributable to law enforcement. The police department's own investigation will determine whether officers followed policies and training.

Williams called the shooting a “tragic and traumatic incident for everyone involved,” and his department said it released information and the body camera video in line with “our commitment to transparency.”

To Nyah's cousin, Isabella Moo, however, the police account appeared to be an “attempt to further criminalize him and protect the officers.”

“This situation should not have gotten to this extent and our police officers need to be trained much more effectively or differently,” she said in a telephone interview. “The city must be held accountable for its actions and no child should have been the victim of this type of situation. »

The Karen are among the groups at war with the military rulers of Myanmar, a Southeast Asian country formerly known as Burma. The military overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021 and cracked down on widespread nonviolent protests demanding a return to democratic rule.

About 20 years ago, Nyah’s family fled Myanmar for Thailand, where he was born in a refugee camp and then immigrated to the United States through a resettlement program about nine years ago, Htoo said. He added that the teenager’s father works at a convenience store.

Htoo said Nyah enjoyed math, soccer and spending time with his friends when he was not caring for his younger siblings. Interested in learning, he sometimes attended Bible studies with his friends, although his family was Buddhist, the cousin said.

The cousin said he was told that on Friday evening the boy had informed his mother that he was going to a store to buy something, and that was the last time she saw him.

She hasn't slept since, except for ten-minute naps, her tears starting up again every time she wakes up, he said.