Family demands accountability for NY police killing of 13-year-old boy. Police said he aimed BB gun

On Wednesday, Nyah Mway finished middle school in the central New York city where his family moved about a decade ago as refugees from Myanmar, relatives said.

By Friday night, the 13-year-old 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.

Struggling to comprehend his death, his anguished relatives and outraged members of their immigrant community called Sunday for justice for him and accountability for police.

“We came to the United States, finally, to get the education and to get the good jobs here” and hoping for a peaceful life after decades of strife and violence in Myanmar, said Lay Htoo, who identified himself as one of Nyah’s cousins.

But instead of celebrating the teen’s ascent to high school, his parents were waiting for medical examiners to release his body and wondering what would become of the officers.

“They want them to be in prison forever,” the cousin said in a phone interview.

As the state attorney general and the Utica Police Department investigate the shooting, Nyah’s relatives and other local members of Myanmar’s Karen ethnic minority said they planned to meet Sunday afternoon with Utica Mayor Michael P. Galime. A message seeking comment was sent to the mayor’s office.

For now, the officers are on paid administrative leave.

The shooting happened Friday night in Utica, an old industrial city where thousands of refugees from various countries have settled in recent decades, creating a measure of revival in a faded Rust Belt hub. The city’s population of 65,000 includes more than 4,200 people from Myanmar, according to The Center, a nonprofit group that helps to resettle refugees.

According to police, Nyah