NEW YORK (AP) — A police officer in upstate New York will not face criminal charges in the fatal shooting of a 13-year-old boy who pointed what turned out to be a BB gun, state Attorney General Letitia James announced Wednesday.
Nyah Mway was shot and killed after he fled from officers questioning him and another teen on a residential street in Utica on the night of June 28, 2024.
Officer Patrick Husnay chased Mway, tackled him to the ground and fired a single shot into his chest. He was taken to a hospital where he died.
James, in releasing her office's 18-page review of the shooting, concluded prosecutors would not be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer’s actions were unjustified.
Husnay and two other officers had approached Mway because he matched the description of a suspect involved in an armed robbery the previous night, she said. Mway fled when officers attempted to pat him down. He then pulled out what appeared to be a handgun and aimed it at an officer.
“Under New York’s justification law, a police officer may use deadly physical force when the officer reasonably believes it to be necessary to defend against the use of deadly physical force by another,” James stated.
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 family, in an emailed statement, said it was reviewing James' report but thanked her office for investigating.
“Regardless of what the report concludes, we know what we lost. We know what we experienced,” the statement reads. “Nyah deserved to grow up. We deserve to live in a community where children like him are protected, not pursued.”
The family and other Karen community members had called for police to be held accountable, as Mway was already subdued and on the ground when he was shot.
Body camera videos released by police in the days after the killing showed a chaotic scene. The officers scream “gun!” before one of them tackles him and punches him. Another officer opens fire as the two wrestle on the ground while bystanders scream at police.
Police also released images showing the BB gun Mway pointed closely resembled a Glock 17 Gen 5 handgun. They also noted it 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.
Utica Police Chief Mark Williams and Mayor Michael Galime, in a joint statement Wednesday, said they were “pleased” James’ office cleared the officers of criminal wrongdoing.
They expressed hope the city could heal after the tragedy.
”Since that night we have tirelessly sought to build back the relationships and trust with the Burmese and Karen communities,” the statement read. “We feel that those connections have never been stronger than they are today.”
Husnay and the Utica police officers union didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment late Wednesday.
Karens are an ethnic minority warring with the military rulers of Myanmar, which was formerly known as Burma.
Utica, located about 240 miles (400 kilometers) northwest of Manhattan, is home to more than 4,200 people from Myanmar. They’re among thousands of refugees from various countries who have settled in the area in recent decades.
FILE - A portrait of Nyah Mway is brought out from the funeral home Saturday, July 6, 2024 in Utica, N.Y. (John Clifford/The Daily Sentinel via AP,File)
KRYVYI RIH, Ukraine (AP) — Anger and outrage gripped the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday as it held funerals for some of the 20 people, including nine children, killed by a Russian missile that tore through apartment buildings and blasted a playground.
More than 70 were wounded in the attack last Friday evening on Kryvyi Rih. The children were playing on swings and in a sandbox in a tree-lined park at the time. Bodies were strewn across the grass.
“We are not asking for pity,” Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the city administration, wrote on Telegram as Kryvyi Rih mourned. “We demand the world’s outrage.”
The U.N. Human Rights Office in Ukraine said it was the deadliest single verified strike harming children since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. It was also one of the deadliest attacks so far this year.
Ukraine has consented to a ceasefire proposed weeks ago by Washington. But Russia is still negotiating with the United States its terms for accepting a truce in the more than three-year war.
U.S. President Donald Trump has voiced frustration at the continued fighting, and Ukrainian officials want him to compel Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop. Trump vowed during his election campaign last year to bring a swift end to the war.
“We’re talking to Russia. We’d like them to stop,” Trump told reporters Sunday. “I don’t like the bombing.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reaffirmed Monday that Putin supports a ceasefire proposed by Trump but wants Russian conditions to be met.
“President Putin indeed backs the ceasefire idea, but it’s necessary to first answer quite a few questions,” Peskov said.
In Kryvyi Rih, teacher Iryna Kholod, 59, remembered Arina and Radyslav, both 7 years old and killed in Friday's strike, as being “like little suns in the classroom.”
Radyslav, she said, was proud to be part of a school campaign collecting pet food for stray animals. “He held the bag like it was treasure. He wanted to help,” she told The Associated Press.
After Friday evening, "two desks in my classroom were empty forever,” Kholod said, adding that she still has unopened birthday gifts for them.
“How do I tell parents to return their textbooks? How do I teach without them?” she asked.
Russian missile and drone tactics continue to evolve, making it harder to shoot them down, Yurii Ihnat, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian air force command, said on national television.
Russia's Shahed drones have undergone significant upgrades, while Moscow is also modernizing its ballistic missiles, he said.
Only the U.S. Patriot missile defense system can help prevent attacks like the one in Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskyy said late Sunday.
He said he had instructed his defense and foreign affairs ministers to "work bilaterally on air defense, especially with the United States, which has sufficient potential to help stop any terror.”
Ukraine will send a team to Washington this week to begin negotiations on a new draft of a deal that would give the U.S. access to Ukraine’s valuable mineral resources, Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko told The Associated Press.
Failure to conclude a mineral deal has hamstrung Ukrainian efforts to secure pledges of continuing U.S. military support.
Britain's Ministry of Defense and the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, a think tank, say Russia's battlefield progress on the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line has slowed since November. But on Saturday night, Russia launched its biggest aerial attack on Ukraine in nearly a month.
Both sides are thought to be preparing for a renewed spring-summer military campaign.
In Kryvyi Rih on Monday, Nataliia Slobodeniuk recalled her student Danylo Nikitskyi, 15, as “a spark” who energized the classroom and helped organize school trips and other occasions.
“If Danylo was going, half the class went too,” the 55-year-old teacher said. “That’s how loved he was.”
She choked up as she spoke of her feeling of powerlessness after the attack.
“You live through their joy, their sadness,” she told AP. “And now, this pain, it tears you apart. And you realize there’s nothing you can do. Nothing to fix it. You just carry the pain forever.”
An air raid alert interrupted a planned memorial ceremony in the city — a reminder of the continuing threat for civilians.
The frustration hit home for Nataliia Freylikh, the schoolteacher of 9-year-old Herman Tripolets, who was killed in last Friday's attack.
“Even mourning him properly is impossible,” Freylikh said.
Novikov reported from Kyiv, Ukraine.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, dead bodies lie on the ground after a Russian missile hit apartment houses and a playground, killing 14 civilians including six children, in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, Friday, April 4, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, dead bodies lie on the ground after a Russian missile hit apartment houses and a playground, killing 14 civilians including six children, in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, Friday, April 4, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, dead bodies lie on the ground after a Russian missile hit apartment houses and a playground, killing 14 civilians including six children, in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, Friday, April 4, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
Flowers and toys left in the play area to commemorate victims killed in Russia's missile attack on Friday, near apartment buildings, in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, Saturday, April 5, 2025. (AP Photo)
Flowers and toys left on a swing seat to commemorate victims killed in Russia's missile attack on Friday, at a children play area near the damaged apartment buildings, in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, Saturday, April 5, 2025. (AP Photo)
