Family seeks accountability in NYPD killing of 13-year-old boy, police say he aimed a BB gun

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

A 13-year-old was fatally shot Friday evening by police who wrestled him to the ground after he allegedly pointed what turned out to be an air rifle at them during a foot chase.

Trying to make sense of his death, his anguished relatives and outraged members of the immigrant community called Sunday for justice for him and police accountability.

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

But instead of celebrating the teen’s high school entrance, his parents waited until medical examiners released his body, wondering what would happen to the officers.

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

While the state attorney general and the Utica Police Department are investigating the shooting, Nyah’s relatives and other local members of Burma’s Karen ethnic minority said they plan to meet Sunday afternoon with Utica Mayor Michael P. Galime. A message seeking comment was left with the mayor’s office.

The officers are currently on paid administrative leave.

The shooting occurred Friday night in Utica, an old industrial city that has welcomed thousands of refugees from around the world in recent decades, sparking a renaissance in the faded Rust Belt heartland. The city’s population of 65,000 includes more than 4,200 people from Myanmar, according to The Center, a nonprofit that helps resettle refugees.

Police said Nyah and another 13-year-old boy were detained Friday night because they matched the descriptions of suspects in an armed robbery that occurred Thursday in the same area, and because one of the teens was seen walking by without being noticed. Police declined to release the armed robbery report or a description of the suspect Sunday, citing the ongoing investigation.

Body camera footage shows the officer having to search them for weapons, before one of the teens — identified as Nyah — runs away, turns around and appears to point a black object at her.

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

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

A video posted on Facebook by a bystander shows an officer attacking and punching the teenager as two other officers arrive, followed by a gunshot as the teenager lies on the ground.

Under New York state law, the Attorney General’s Office investigates every death at the hands of law enforcement. The police investigation is to determine whether officers followed policy and training.

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

But to Nyah’s cousin Isabella Moo, the police narrative seemed like “an attempt to criminalize him even more and try to protect police officers.”

“This should not have escalated, and our police officers need to be trained much better or much differently,” she said in a telephone interview. “The city needs to be held accountable, and this should not be done to any child.”

The Karen are among groups fighting the military rulers of Myanmar, a Southeast Asian country formerly known as Burma. The army overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021 and has crushed widespread, peaceful protests that sought a return to democratic rule.

Nyah’s family fled Burma for Thailand about two decades ago, where he was born in a refugee camp, and then immigrated to the United States about nine years ago under a resettlement program, Htoo said. The teenager’s father works at a grocery store, he said.

Htoo said Nyah enjoyed math, soccer and spending time with friends when he wasn’t caring for his younger siblings. He was interested in science and sometimes attended Bible studies with friends, although his family is Buddhist, his cousin said.

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

She hasn’t slept since then except for 10-minute naps, and her tears go back to normal every time she wakes up, he said.