Bodycam footage in police shooting of Nyah Mway, 13, released, showing frantic chase
Shocking bodycam footage captured upstate New York police asking to pat down a 13-year-old boy moments before he ran off and allegedly flashed a pellet gun at cops — who fatally shot him.
Footage released by Utica Police shows the horrifying moments leading up to the death of Nyah Mway, who was stopped alongside a friend Friday night as part of a police investigation into recent armed robberies.
“Can I just pat you down to make sure you’ve got no weapons on you?” Officer Bryce Patterson asks Mway in the bodycam footage, obtained by the Rome Sentinel.
Mway, a member of the Karen community, spoke with the officer in English and can be seen raising his hands before quickly running off, prompting the three police officers to chase after him.
The blurry footage, taken from Patterson’s bodycam, then shows Mway pulling out what appeared to be a handgun before pointing “the weapon directly at Officer Patterson and the other officers,” according to police.
Patterson then tackles Mway to the ground before Officer Patrick Husnay fires a single shot, fatally shooting the teen, according to the local outlet.
Husnay can be heard shouting, “Drop it! Drop it!” as he moves to Patterson and Mway on the ground.
Patterson then attempts to provide medical care to Mway, telling his fellow officers, “I don’t know if he shot me” as he tends to the teen’s gunshot wound.
The other officers call in for backup and an ambulance while reporting shots fired. The third officer involved, Officer Andrew J. Citriniti, can be heard telling neighbors who were watching and shouting, “Back up, back up.”
Shocked bystanders can also be heard shouting throughout the chaos, including one who exclaimed “Oh my God! Yo! He just shot him!”
The boy was shot in the chest and died from his wounds at Wynn Hospital in Utica, cops said over the weekend.
The New York State Attorney General’s Office is investigating the shooting to determine if it was justified.
After the shooting, the weapon Mway was armed with was determined to be a replica Glock and a pellet gun.
Mway is Asian and a member of the Karen community, an ethnic group from Burma — with a large settlement in Minnesota and other parts of the US, including Utica, according to local media.
Authorities said they stopped the teens because they were looking for suspects involved in recent armed robberies, who were described as “Asian males who brandished a black in color firearm and forcibly demanded and sole property from victims.”
In one of the robberies, one of the suspects was walking while the other was on a bicycle, similar to Mway and his friend.
All three officers involved have been placed on administrative leave.
Community members expressed anger and demanded justice, sometimes screaming over local leaders during an emotional press conference on Saturday that was attended by at least 50 of Mway’s family members.
Mway’s heartbroken mother was present and broke down and screamed as officials’ remarks were translated into her native Burmese.
The investigation into the shooting remains ongoing.
