NEW YORK (AP) — Police in upstate New York tackled and then shot a 13-year-old boy to death after he pointed what turned out to be a BB gun at officers during a foot chase.
Utica officials released body camera footage of Friday night's shooting on Saturday and held a contentious public meeting attended by the teen's family and other members of their local refugee community.
The state attorney general’s office is investigating and the police officers involved have been placed on leave, as is protocol during such shootings.
Here’s what you need to know.
The shooting happened at around 10 p.m. on a residential street in Utica, an old industrial city about 240 miles (400 kilometers) northwest of Manhattan that sits along the Mohawk River at the foot of the Adirondack Mountains.
According to police, three officers on patrol stopped to question two youths. One of the teens, Nyah Mway, then fled on foot and pointed what police say appeared to be a handgun in the direction of the officers. After tackling the teen to the ground, one of the officers fired a single shot into his chest. The teen was taken to a hospital, where he died.
Mway, whose family name is Nyah, was a Karen refugee born in Myanmar. He had just graduated from middle school and was set to start high school in the fall.
His anguished relatives and other members of the local Karen community have called for police to be held accountable for what they view as an unjust killing, as Mway was already subdued and on the ground when he was shot.
The teen's family said Monday they were waiting for the medical examiners’ office to release his body so they could make funeral arrangements. The Onondaga County Health Department said the cause and manner of death are still pending and the autopsy report hasn't been made public.
Mway's cousin Lay Htoo told The Associated Press that the family had come to the U.S. for education and good jobs in the hopes of living a peaceful life after decades of strife and violence in Myanmar, which is gripped by civil war.
Police have released the names of the three officers who were involved in the incident, saying they are assigned to a crime prevention unit. Patrick Husnay, a six-year veteran of the department, was the officer that shot the boy.
Bryce Patterson, who has been on the police force for four years, and Andrew Citriniti, a two-year department veteran who previously served with the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office, were the other officers involved.
All three remain on paid administrative leave, which is standard in police-involved shootings, Lt. Michael Curley, a department spokesperson, confirmed Monday.
The videos released late Saturday show a chaotic scene.
In the footage, an officer says he needs to pat down the two teens standing on a sidewalk to ensure they don’t have any weapons. One bolts down the street appearing to hold a dark object while he runs away.
The officers scream “gun!” before one of them tackles him and punches him. Another officer opens fire as the two wrestle on the ground.
Bystanders can be heard screaming at the police throughout the recordings. At one point, an officer yells back: “We’re trying to save him right now!”
Police say the BB or pellet gun Mway pointed closely resembled a Glock 17 Gen 5 handgun with a detachable magazine.
The department released images showing the device did not have an orange band on the barrel that many BB gun-makers have added in recent years to distinguish their products from real firearms.
Police Chief Mark Williams said the officers stopped the teens because they matched the description of the suspects in recent robberies in the area.
He said the suspects in those cases were Asian males — one walking and the other on a bicycle — who brandished a black firearm.
Mayor Michael Galime spoke Saturday and met privately with the family. He also addressed the Karen community during a contentious meeting Sunday at a local church, rejecting suggestions that the shooting showed prejudice.
“What I witnessed on the bodycam footage and all of the reports I read leading up to that incident, there was no reference or any indication that there was any racism,” Galime told the crowd.
Michael Gentile, his chief of staff, declined to elaborate Monday, saying the mayor was "asked a direct question in regard to racism, and he gave a direct answer that has not changed.”
Karens are an ethnic minority that are among the groups warring with the military rulers of Myanmar, which was formerly known as Burma.
Utica, a city of more than 65,000 residents, is home to more than 4,200 people from Myanmar, according to The Center, a nonprofit that helps to resettle the refugees.
They’re among thousands of refugees from various countries who have settled in the area in recent decades and who now make up more than 20% of the faded Rust Belt hub's population, by some estimates.
State Attorney General Letitia James’ office is conducting a review to determine if the police department's use of force was justified, as is standard in police shootings.
Her office said Monday that its investigation was ongoing and that it couldn’t provide a timeframe for when it would be complete.
The police department is conducting its own investigation to see whether the officers followed the proper procedures, policies and training.
Curley said Monday that any additional details about the criminal investigation into the shooting will come from James’ office.
Associated Press radio reporter Julie Walker contributed to this report.
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A young girl lights a candle during a vigil for 13-year-old Nyah Mway in Utica, N.Y., Saturday, June 29, 2024. On Friday, June 28, Mway was fatally shot by police who’d tackled him to the ground after he allegedly pointed what turned out to be a BB gun at them during a foot chase. (Daniel DeLoach/Observer-Dispatch via AP)
Utica Mayor Michael Galime, center right, grey jacket, talks with the family members of a 13-year-old boy who was fatally shot by a police officer Friday night after a news conference, Saturday, June 28, 2024 in Utica, N.Y. An officer shot and killed the teenager who was fleeing while wielding a “realistic appearing firearm," authorities said Saturday. (Kenny Lacy Jr./Syracuse.com via AP)
Police investigate the scene of Friday nights shooting in Utica, N.Y., early Saturday, June 29, 2024. An officer shot and killed a teen fleeing while pointing a replica gun, police said Saturday. (Kenny Lacy Jr./Syracuse.com via AP)
KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Hurricane Beryl was roaring by Jamaica on Wednesday, with islanders scrambling to make preparations after the powerful Category 4 storm earlier killed at least six people and caused significant damage in the southeast Caribbean.
In Kingston, people boarded up windows, fishermen pulled their boats out of the water and workers dismantled roadside advertising boards to protect them from the lashing winds.
Kingston resident Pauline Lynch said that she had stockpiled food and water in anticipation of the storm’s arrival. With wind already whipping a light rain, Lynch said, “I have no control over what is coming so I just have to pray that all people of Jamaica is safe and we don’t suffer no deaths, no loss.”
By midday, winds howled in the capital, turning the sea into churning whitecaps as Beryl's eye scraped by the island's southern coast.
“We are very concerned about a wide variety of life threatening impacts in Jamaica,” including storm surge, high winds and flash flooding, said Jon Porter, chief meteorologist at AccuWeather.
Porter called Beryl “the strongest and most dangerous hurricane threat that Jamaica has faced, probably, in decades.”
A hurricane warning was in effect for Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac. Beryl was forecast to weaken slightly over the next day or two, but still be at or near major-hurricane strength when it passes near or over Jamaica on Wednesday, near the Cayman Islands on Thursday and into Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on Friday, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
Jamaica was under a state of emergency as the island was declared a disaster zone hours before the impact of Hurricane Beryl.
Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said that the disaster zone declaration will remain for the next seven days. He also announced an island-wide curfew between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Wednesday.
Security forces "will be fully mobilized to maintain public order and assist with disaster relief. As soon as the hurricane has passed, the security forces have developed strategic plans to counter any potential threat of looting or any other opportunistic crimes,” Holness warned.
An evacuation order was also issued for communities across Jamaica that are prone to flooding and landslides. Holness urged Jamaicans to move away from low-lying areas.
A hurricane watch was in effect for Haiti's southern coast and the Yucatan’s east coast. Belize issued a tropical storm watch stretching south from its border with Mexico to Belize City.
Late Monday, Beryl became the earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic and peaked at winds of 165 mph (270 kph) Tuesday before weakening to a still-destructive Category 4. On Wednesday, the storm's center was about 45 miles (70 kilometers) south of Kingston. It had maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (225 kph) and was moving west-northwest at 18 mph (30 kph). Hurricane strength winds extended 45 miles from the center.
In Miami, U.S. National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan in an online briefing said that people on the island should plan to stay sheltered throughout the day Wednesday with conditions only beginning to improve overnight.
Jamaica’s southern coast, where Kingston is located, was expected to bear the brunt of Beryl with coastal water levels rising to 6 or 9 feet (1.8 to 2.7 meters) above normal tide levels in some area.
Heavy rains of 4 to 8 inches, with up to a foot in isolated areas, threatened flash flooding and mudslides on the mountainous island, he said.
Mexico's Caribbean coast was preparing for Beryl Wednesday. The government issued a hurricane warning for the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula from Puerto Costa Maya to Cancun.
The head of Mexico’s civil defense agency said that Beryl is expected to make a rare double strike on Mexico. Laura Velázquez said the hurricane is expected to make landfall between late Thursday and early Friday along a relatively unpopulated stretch of the Caribbean coast between Tulum and the inland town of Felipe Carrillo Puerto. Because the coast there is largely made up of lagoons and mangroves, there are few resorts or hotels in the area south of Tulum.
The hurricane is expected to weaken to a tropical storm as it crosses the Yucatan peninsula and reemerge over the weekend at storm strength into the Gulf of Mexico. Velázquez said that Beryl is then expected to hit Mexican territory a second time in the Gulf coast states of Veracruz or Tamaulipas, near the Texas border.
As Beryl barreled through the Caribbean Sea, rescue crews in southeastern islands fanned out to determine the extent of the damage the hurricane inflicted on Carriacou, an island in Grenada.
Three people were reported killed in Grenada and Carriacou and another in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, officials said. Two other deaths were reported in northern Venezuela, where five people are missing, officials said. About 25,000 people in that area also were affected by heavy rainfall from Beryl.
One fatality in Grenada occurred after a tree fell on a house, Kerryne James, the environment minister, told The Associated Press. She said Carriacou and Petit Martinique sustained the greatest damage, with scores of homes and businesses flattened in Carriacou.
Grenada's Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said Tuesday there was no power, roads are impassable and the possible rise of the death toll “remains a grim reality.”
St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has promised to rebuild the archipelago. He noted that 90% of homes on Union Island were destroyed, and that “similar levels of devastation” were expected on the islands of Myreau and Canouan.
The last strong hurricane to hit the southeast Caribbean was Hurricane Ivan 20 years ago, which killed dozens of people in Grenada.
Grenada, known as the “spice isle,” is one of the world's top exporters of nutmeg. Mitchell noted that the bulk of the spices are grown in the northern part of the island, which was hit hardest by Beryl.
Associated Press writers Mark Stevenson in Mexico City and Coral Murphy Marcos in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed to this report.
This image provided by NASA shows Hurricane Beryl from the International Space Station on Sunday, July 1, 2024. Beryl was roaring toward Jamaica on Wednesday, July 3, with islanders scrambling to make preparations after the powerful Category 4 storm earlier killed at least six people and caused significant damage in the southeast Caribbean. (NASA via AP)
A man covers the windows of a building to protect it from the incoming Hurricane Beryl in Kingston, Jamaica, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Collin Reid)
Workers chops a tree uprooted by Hurricane Beryl in St. James, Barbados, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)
Fishermen push a boat damaged by Hurricane Beryl at the Bridgetown fisheries, Barbados, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)
Palm trees wilt after being uprooted by Hurricane Beryl in St. Patrick, Grenada, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Haron Forteau)
Roofs of houses lie damaged by Hurricane Beryl in St. Patrick, Grenada, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Haron Forteau)
Evacuees from Union Island arrive in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. The island, in the Grenadines archipelago, was hit by Hurricane Beryl. (AP Photo/Lucanus Ollivierre)
Fishing boats lie in the middle of the street for protection from Hurricane Beryl in Kingston, Jamaica, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Collin Reid)
Workers dismantle an advertisement board to protect it from Hurricane Beryl in Kingston, Jamaica, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Collin Reid)
Fishermen play dominoes after pulling their boats out of the water to protect them from Hurricane Beryl in Kingston, Jamaica, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Collin Reid)
