Shocking body camera footage shows a 13-year-old boy being searched by upstate New York police, who then allegedly ran away and brandished a pellet gun at officers before shooting him to death.
Footage released by Utica police shows the terrifying moments leading up to the death of Nya Mway, who was stopped along with a friend Friday night as part of a police investigation into a recent armed robbery.
“May I search you to make sure you don’t have any weapons?” Officer Bryce Patterson asks Mway in the body camera footage. Obtained by the Rome Sentinel.
Mway, an ethnic Karen man, is seen speaking to the officers in English and then running away with his hands up, with three officers chasing him.
Police said blurry footage from Patterson’s body camera then shows Mway pull out what appears to be a handgun and “point the weapon directly at Officer Patterson and the other officers.”
According to local media, Patterson then pushed Mwei to the ground and Officer Patrick Hasnay fired one shot, killing him.
Hasnay can be heard shouting at Patterson and Mway, who are on the ground, “Drop them! Drop them!”
Patterson then attempted to provide medical treatment to Mway, telling fellow officers “I don’t know if he shot me” while treating the gunshot wound.
Other officers called for backup and an ambulance, reporting shots being fired. The third officer involved, Officer Andrew J. Citrinity, can be heard yelling “Back off, back off” to nearby residents who were watching.
The New York State Attorney General’s Office is investigating to determine whether the shooting was justified.
After the shooting, the weapons Mwaye was equipped with were determined to be a replica Glock and a pellet gun.
Authorities said they detained the young men as they were searching for a suspect in connection to recent armed robberies, described as an “Asian male who brandished a black-colored firearm and forcefully demanded property from the victims.”
In one of the robberies, one of the suspects was on foot and the other was on a bicycle, as was Mwei and a friend.
All three officers involved have been placed on administrative leave.
The investigation into the shooting remains ongoing.
The Karen are an ethnic group originally from Burma with large populations in Minnesota and other parts of the United States.
