Family demands accountability for New York police killing of 13-year-old boy. Police say he aimed a BB gun

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.

On Friday night, the 13-year-old was shot and killed by police who tackled him to the ground after he allegedly pointed what turned out to be a BB gun at them during a foot chase.

Trying to come to terms with his death, his anguished relatives and outraged members of their immigrant community demanded justice for him and police accountability on Sunday.

“We finally 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 spoke identified as one of Nyah's cousins.

But instead of celebrating the teenager's high school graduation, 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 Burma Police Department are Karen ethnic minority said they plan to meet Sunday afternoon with Utica Mayor Michael P. Galime. A message seeking comment was sent to the town hall.

For now, the officers are on paid administrative leave.

The shooting occurred Friday evening in Utica, a former industrial city where thousands of people Refugees from various countries have settled in recent decadescreating 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 Centera nonprofit group that helps resettle refugees.

Police said Nyah and another 13-year-old boy were arrested Friday night because they matched the descriptions of suspects in an armed robbery that occurred Thursday in the same neighborhood and because a teenager was walking on the sidewalk. Police declined Sunday to release the armed robbery report and the suspect description, citing the ongoing investigation.

Body camera video shows an officer saying he needs to search them for weapons. Then one of the teens, identified as Nyah, runs away, turns around and appears to point a black object at them.

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

Officer Bryce Patterson caught up to Nyah, tackled him and punched him, and as the two wrestled on the ground, Officer Patrick Husnay opened fire, the body camera video showed. Utica Police Chief Mark Williams said at a news conference Saturday that the single shot struck the youth in the chest.

A video posted on Facebook also shows a police officer tackling the teenager and hitting him as two other officers arrive, then a shot rings out while the teenager 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 keeping with “our commitment to transparency.”

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

“This situation should not have gotten to this point and our police officers need to be trained much better or differently,” she said in a telephone interview. “The city needs to be held accountable for its actions and no child should have been subjected to this kind of situation.”

The Karen are among the groups at war with the military rulers of Myanmar, the Southeast Asian country formerly known as Burma. The army overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021 and suppressed numerous non-violent protests that sought a return to democratic rule.

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

Htoo said Nyah enjoyed math, soccer and spending time with his friends when he wasn’t looking after his younger siblings. Interested in learning, he sometimes attended Bible studies with his friends, even though his family is Buddhist, his cousin said.

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

Since then, she has not slept except for 10-minute naps, her tears returning each time she wakes, he said.