The police shooting of a 13-year-old Myanmar boy has sparked outrage in Utica, New York, where refugees make up 25% of the population. The city has been welcoming immigrants fleeing oppressive regimes for 40 years.
Anger and grief has engulfed the small New York town of Utica, where a 13-year-old boy was shot and killed by police as bystanders screamed, bodycam video shows.
Nyah Mway had just graduated from middle school days before the shooting, his sister said. The family had fled persecution in Myanamar when Nyah was just a small boy to settle in the upstate community where refugees are 25% of the population.
The 13-year-old and another boy were stopped Friday night by officers who were looking for robbery suspects that matched the youngsters' description, authorities said.
Bodycam footage appears to show Mway initially putting his hands up as officers stop him on the sidewalk. When one officers says he is going to pat down Mway for weapons, the video shows him running away.
"Gun!" one of the officers is heard yelling. The boy had pointed what looked like a Glock handgun at them, police said.
The officers are seen chasing him on foot, with one officer tackling the boy and then punching him, according to police bodycam footage released by the department.
Seconds later, a single shot rings out. Neighbors can be heard shouting at officers on the video. Mway later died at a nearby hospital. The weapon turned out to be a pellet gun, authorities said.
On Saturday, residents flooded a police press conference about the shooting, where Mway's mother was seen sobbing as community members shouted questions at Mayor Michael Galime and Police Chief Mark Williams.
“There’s a lot of emotions in this room,” the police chief said as shouting continued. “But you’re asking us to be transparent, and when you shout over us, it makes it very difficult to do so.
“We ask for your patience while investigating,” Williams told the agitated crowd.
Mayor Galime said, “What happened yesterday evening in our community is an event that has become all too familiar and routine, over and over and over again." The mayor also said he had seen the bodycam footage and didn't immediately see anything out of order.
Three officers were involved in the chase, the chief said. All have been placed on paid leave while the department conducts its own internal investigation, and the New York Attorney General's office conducts a separate probe, as is standard for police shootings involving a citizen, according to state law.
The mayor ended the press conference abruptly when the yelling didn't subside, saying he would speak to distraught family members privately.
The 13-year-old was the second of four children, his sister said on a GoFundMe page.
"Our family moved to America nine years ago as refugees from Myanmar to find a better life, safe from law enforcement killings and ethnic cleansing," the sister said.
"My brother was an outgoing kid who loved to be outside biking and playing with his friends and family. Our parents and grandparents did not flee war & corrupt military to be persecuted by American police," she wrote.
Her brother, she said, was on his way home when police stopped him Friday night at about 10 p.m.
"My brother was returning home from an 8th grade graduation barbecue. He has never gotten in trouble with law enforcement before, he was a good kid," the sister said.
Utica, once a dying Rust Belt town, has been saved by refugees from war-torn countries including Sudan, Somalia, Ukraine and Myanmar, according to nonprofit agencies serving those populations. Downtown is marked by international restaurants and shops.
The Mway family belongs to Myanamar's ethnic Karen minority, whose members have been persecuted since the army ousted Aung San Suu's elected government and cracked down on nonviolent protests seeking a return to democratic governance.
The Southeast Asia country was formerly known as Burma.
"Our thoughts are with our officers involved, and the family of the deceased juvenile," the police department said in a statement Saturday.
"It is our sincerest desire that at the conclusion of these investigations an impartial, fair, and thorough investigation will have been completed, giving answers to any remaining lingering questions," the statement concluded.
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