Family demands accountability for NY cops killing of 13-year-old boy. Police say he aimed BB gun

On Wednesday, Nyah Mway graduated from middle school in downtown New York, where his family moved about a decade ago as refugees from Myanmar, relatives said.

On Friday evening, the 13-year-old was shot dead by police officers. They had pulled him to the ground after he aimed an object at them during a foot chase – it turned out to be an air rifle.

His distraught relatives and outraged members of their immigrant community can hardly comprehend his death and on Sunday demanded justice for him and police accountability.

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

But instead of celebrating the teenager’s advancement to high school, his parents waited for the medical examiner to release his body and wondered what would become of the officers.

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

While the state Attorney General and Utica Police investigate the shooting, Nyah’s relatives and other local members of the Karen ethnic minority said they had scheduled a meeting with Utica Mayor Michael P. Galime for Sunday afternoon. A message seeking comment was sent to the mayor’s office.

The officers are currently on paid administrative leave.

The shooting occurred Friday evening in Utica, an old industrial city where thousands Refugees from various countries have settled in recent decadesleading to some revival of a faded Rust Belt center. Among the city’s 65,000 residents are more than 4,200 people from Myanmar, according to The Centera non-profit group that helps resettle refugees.

Police said Nyah and another 13-year-old boy were stopped Friday night because they matched descriptions of suspects in an armed robbery that occurred in the same area on Thursday and because a teenager ran a red light. The police department declined to release the armed robbery report and suspect description on Sunday, citing the ongoing investigation.

Body camera video shows an officer saying he had to pat her down for weapons. Then one of the teens – Nyah – runs away, turns around and appears to point a black object at her.

Officers believed it was a handgun, police said, but it was later determined to be a BB or air gun that looked very similar to a Glock 17 Gen 5 pistol with a detachable magazine. Police released an image showing that the device did not have an orange band on the barrel, which many BB gun manufacturers have added in recent years to distinguish their products from firearms.

Officer Bryce Patterson caught up with Nyah, threw him to the ground and punched him. While the two were wrestling on the ground, Officer Patrick Husnay opened fire, a body camera shows. Utica Police Chief Mark Williams said at a news conference Saturday that the single shot hit the teen in the chest.

A video posted on Facebook by a bystander also showed a police officer attacking and hitting the teenager as two more officers arrived. Then a gunshot rang out as the teenager lay on the ground.

Under New York State law, the Attorney General’s Office investigates every police-related death. 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 bodycam video in line with “our commitment to transparency.”

However, for Nyah’s cousin Isabella Moo, the police portrayal seemed to be an “attempt to criminalise him even further and protect the police officers”.

“The escalation should not have happened, 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, and this should not have been done to a child.”

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 widespread non-violent protests demanding a return to democratic rule.

Nyah’s family fled Myanmar for Thailand about two decades ago, where he was born in a refugee camp. He then immigrated to the United States about nine years ago as part of a resettlement program, Htoo said. He said the teenager’s father works at a supermarket.

Htoo said Nyah was interested in math and soccer and spent time with friends when he wasn’t looking after his younger siblings. He was eager to learn and sometimes went to Bible study with his friends, even though his family were Buddhists, the cousin said.

The cousin said he was told the boy told his mother on Friday night 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, and every time she wakes up, she starts crying again, he said.