New York Attorney General Letitia James’ workplace is investigating the taking pictures of Nyah Mway, who was born in Myanmar and is a member of its Karen ethnic minority. Utica police stated officers tackled {the teenager} to the bottom after which shot him after a foot chase on Friday.
Police, who’re conducting their very own probe, launched physique digital camera video that confirmed a youth showing to purpose an object at them earlier than they took him to the bottom. The object was a BB gun that regarded like an precise firearm, police stated.
While the official investigations proceeded, Nyah Mway’s household and outraged neighborhood members demanded accountability for the loss of life of the teenager.
Daniel DeLoach/Utica Observer-Dispatch/USA Today Network by way of REUTERS
At a vigil Saturday night time, Nyah Mway’s brother, Lah, stated by means of an interpreter that he would not be happy till the officers “are put in jail,” Syracuse.com reported.
Others on the vigil questioned officers’ account of the taking pictures.
“None of it provides up,” stated Kay Klo, a type of on the gathering.
According to police, Nyah Mway and one other 13-year-old boy had been stopped Friday night time as a result of they allegedly match descriptions of suspects in an armed theft that occurred the day earlier than in the identical space. Police stated one was additionally strolling within the highway, a violation of state site visitors regulation.
The physique digital camera video reveals an officer saying he must pat them down for any weapons. While officers had been questioning the teenagers, one in every of them – later recognized as Nyah Mway – ran away, turned and appeared to level a black merchandise at them.
Officer Bryce Patterson caught up with Nyah Mway, tackled and punched him, and because the two wrestled on the bottom, Officer Patrick Husnay opened hearth, physique digital camera video confirmed. Utica Police Chief Mark Williams stated at a information convention Saturday that the only shot hit the youth within the chest.
The teenager was taken to Wynn Hospital, the place he died of his accidents.
Police stated the merchandise the boy was holding was later decided to be a BB or pellet gun that intently resembled a Glock 17 Gen 5 handgun with a removable journal. Police launched a picture exhibiting the system didn’t have an orange band on the barrel that many BB gunmakers have added in recent times to tell apart their merchandise from firearms.
A bystander video posted to Facebook and obtained by CBS News additionally confirmed an officer tackling the teenager and punching him as two different officers arrived, then a gunshot ringing out as the teenager was on the bottom.
Regarding that video, police stated in an announcement that it was “conscious of a video of the incident circulating on social media platforms, which doesn’t painting the incident in its entirety.”
Husnay, Patterson and Officer Andrew Citriniti had been positioned on paid administrative depart because the investigations go ahead.
Under New York regulation, the legal professional basic’s workplace seems into each loss of life by the hands of regulation enforcement. The Utica Police Department’s probe, in the meantime, will discover whether or not officers adopted insurance policies and coaching.
The police chief referred to as the taking pictures “a tragic and traumatic incident for all concerned.”
Utica’s inhabitants of 65,000 contains greater than 4,200 folks from Myanmar, according to The Center, a nonprofit group that helps to resettle refugees.
Karens are amongst teams warring with the army rulers of Myanmar, the Southeast Asian nation previously generally known as Burma. The military ousted the elected authorities of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021 and suppressed widespread nonviolent protests that sought a return to democratic rule.
Nyah Mway and his household got here to the United States 9 years in the past, in keeping with audio system on the vigil.
“This nation is meant to be a rustic of freedom, a rustic of peace,” stated one speaker, Yadana Oo. “What’s occurring? Did we run from one persecutor to a different?”
