Family seeks answers after New York police kill 13-year-old boy

TThe family of a 13-year-old Burmese boy is demanding answers after the boy was shot and killed by police in Utica, New York.

Nyah Mway was shot and killed by a Utica police officer who thought the boy had a gun, which turned out to be a pellet gun, according to AP. The boy’s family, who immigrated to the United States more than a decade ago as a refugee from Myanmar, is now seeking justice and accountability for the boy’s death.

Police say Nyah and another 13-year-old were stopped by officers who said they matched descriptions of suspects in an armed robbery and that one of the teens was crossing outside the crosswalk.

Body camera footage shows an officer saying the boys needed to be searched for weapons. At that point, Nyah runs away, turns toward the officers and appears to point an object in their direction.

Officers claimed the object in Nyah’s hand was a handgun, but later determined it was a BB gun that resembled a Glock 17.

After Nyah ran away, Officer Bryce Patterson caught up to the boy, tackling him, punching him and pinning him to the ground. Officer Patrick Husnay then opened fire, shooting Nyah Mway in the chest, according to Utica Police Chief Mark Williams.

The officers involved have been placed on administrative leave and an investigation is underway.

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

But the family has a different view, saying the police’s rhetoric “is trying to criminalise him further and protect the police officers”.

“This situation should not have gotten to this point, and our police need to be trained much better or differently,” Nyah’s cousin, Isabella Moo, said in a telephone interview with AP. “The city needs to be held accountable, and this should not have been done to a child.”

According to The Center, a nonprofit group that helps refugees resettle, Utica is home to thousands of refugees from Myanmar. Nyah’s family fled Myanmar two decades ago and made their way to Thailand, where Nyah was born in a refugee camp. The family immigrated to the United States about nine years ago through a resettlement program, according to Lay Htoo, Nyah’s cousin.

“We finally came to the United States to get an education and get good jobs here” and in hopes of leading a peaceful life after decades of conflict and violence in Myanmar, Lay Htoo told AP.

Now, instead of living the peaceful life they hoped for, they must endure the pain of losing a child at the hands of American police officers.

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