New York police murder 13-year-old

On Friday evening, police in the upstate New York city of Utica shot and killed 13-year-old Nyah Mway, a young refugee. Mway had graduated from eighth grade two days earlier.

Police arrested the youth and his friend around 10 p.m. while investigating a series of robberies in West Utica.

Nyah Mway, 13, from Utica, New York. (Photo: Mway family)

In the police camera footage, the officers tell the youth, with their lights flashing, that they stopped them because one of them was riding a bicycle on the sidewalk. They then tell Mway to put his hands in the air. But when they ask him to search him for weapons, he runs away in fear.

The police video, which appears to have been edited, shows the youth holding an object that police said looked like a gun to them. The police start shouting that he is armed. A video recorded by a witness shows police knocking Mwaya to the ground. At that moment, Officer Patrick Husnay, a six-year police veteran, fires a single shot into Mwaya’s chest from a standing position.

The weapon recovered by police was a pellet gun that was allegedly made to look like a lethal weapon. The officer shown in the police video examining the device was unable to correctly identify it.

The video was taken by a bystander, apparently standing on a nearby porch. It’s terrifying.

Off camera, a group of young people can be heard repeatedly shouting at police to be careful and warning them that they are being recorded. When a policeman shoots Mwaya, screams of despair and disbelief can be heard among onlookers.

Utica is a former industrial city of approximately 60,000 people located approximately 340 km north of New York City. It was a center of textile production in the early to mid-20th century and a center of abolitionism in the 19th century, where it was a major stop on the Underground Railroad.

The city has become impoverished—nearly 30 percent of its population lives below the federal poverty line—like many of New York’s smaller, former industrial cities. It is a hub for refugees, who make up a quarter of the population, mostly Bosniaks and Karens. At least 43 languages are spoken in the city.

The Karen are an ethnic minority from Myanmar (Burma), where they constitute approximately 7 percent of the population. Due to the Burmese government’s efforts to suppress the Karen uprising, hundreds of thousands of civilians have become refugees, many of them living in terrible conditions on the Thai-Burmese border.

At a news conference, Utica Mayor Michael P. Galime, a Republican, said, “What happened last night in our community is an event that has become all too familiar and routine, time and time again,” an apparent attempt to calm anger across the city.

Also Saturday, the Utica Police Department released a statement. It said: “Our thoughts are with our officers involved and the family of the deceased minor.”

The department placed Husnay and the two other officers involved on paid administrative leave and promised a full investigation. The New York State Attorney General’s Office is investigating the shooting to determine whether it was justified.

The killing sparked protests in Utica. A vigil for Mway was held Saturday, attended by people from all walks of life, including Karen, white workers, African Americans and Latinos.

Speakers demanded an investigation, saying the police story didn’t add up. One speaker told the vigil: “This country is supposed to be a country of freedom, a country of peace. What’s going on? Did we run from one pursuer to another?”

After the vigil, a group of young people stood before police at the police station, chanting: “No justice, no peace!”

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During a GoFundMe fundraiser, Nyah’s brother Thoung Oo said:

“My brother was a sociable child who loved riding his bike outdoors and playing with friends and family. Our parents and grandparents did not flee war and a corrupt military to be persecuted by American police.

“My brother was driving home from an eighth-grade barbecue. He had never been in trouble with law enforcement before. He was a good kid. The UPD video, witness statements, and stories they told my family didn’t make sense, especially when they told my parents (who don’t speak any English) that there had been a shooting. We need answers. On the body camera, we heard the officer say, ‘Why did he shoot?’