IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

Nyah Mway’s framed eighth grade graduation certificate sits at the side entrance of the Buddha Dama Thuka Temple, propped above a party speaker that emits colorful lights. This was the Mway family’s parish, where Nyah danced and played pool on the weekends with other teenagers.

Nyah graduated from Donovan Middle School on June 27, 2024. The next day, Utica Police Department Officer Patrick Husnay shot him in the street, a single bullet to the chest.

In the year since, Utica’s tight-knit Karen (pronounced Kah-REN) community of immigrants from Myanmar, and local activists say they are still fighting for justice. On June 25, his family filed a civil suit against the city and Husnay, asking for compensatory and punitive damages.

The lawsuit alleged excessive force u

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