(UnitedVoice.com) – The 2014 shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice by police in Cleveland, Ohio, led to national outrage. The boy was holding a toy gun when police shot him in a park. Now, a decade later, New York police have killed a boy about the same age as Rice, who was also carrying a toy gun.
On June 28, the Utica Police Department’s Crime Prevention Unit stopped two 13-year-old boys while out on patrol. One of the kids, Nyah Mway, ran away from the three officers. While he was running, police say he pointed what appeared to be a handgun at officers. The cops tackled the teen boy, and Officer Patrick Husnay fired a single shot into his chest.
The teenager’s family has called on officers to be held accountable for the incident. They believe it was an unjust shooting because Mway was already subdued on the ground when the officer fired the fatal shot. The Onondaga County Health Department has said the manner and cause of death are pending.
Investigators recovered a Glock 17 Gen5 replica handgun from the crime scene. It was reportedly a pellet gun.
Officer Husnay is a six-year veteran of the Utica Police Department. The other officers involved were identified as Andrew Citriniti and Bryce Patterson. The men had been on the force for four years and two years, respectively.
The officers said that they’d stopped the teen boys because of a string of robberies in the area. The suspects were reportedly Asian males who’d brandished a black firearm. The police department released body cam footage that appears to corroborate the description of events the officers gave after the shooting. In one of the videos, Mway turns around while holding something that looks like a handgun and yells, “Gun!” After he tackles the teen, they are seen struggling, and then a gunshot is heard.
The investigation into the shooting is ongoing.
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