The death of a nearly blind refugee who didn’t speak English and was found dead in February in New York state days after Customs and Border Protection officers left him outside a coffee shop was a homicide, a state medical examiner’s office said Wednesday.
Nurul Amin Shah Alam’s manner of death was determined to be a homicide with cause of death being “complications of a perforated ulcer precipitated by hypothermia and dehydration,” Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon. Poloncarz said the cause of death “refers to the disease or injury that initiates the lethal sequence of events.”
Poloncarz said his office was barred by state law from publicly releasing the official autopsy and report on the death. He said he wished he could release it.
The Erie County health commissioner, Dr. Gale Burstein, said Wednesday that Shah Alam had a “stress ulcer” that burst open.
“If that is not repaired in a short period of time, it can cause death, which is what we have, we felt we’ve seen in this instance,” she said, later adding, “It’s a medical emergency.”
She said that Shah Alam experienced “severe stress” and that “stress was felt to be hypothermia, being in very cold temperatures, and dehydration, so no access to liquids.”
Burstein said homicide as a manner of death “refers to death resulting from volitional or through a choice or decision or an act of another, and so this includes negligent acts or omissions or inaction.”
Burstein said “the designation of homicide does not imply intent to cause harm or death” and does “not indicate criminality, which is the purview of the judicial system.”
A Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said Shah Alam's death "had NOTHING to do with Border Patrol."
"Mr. Shah Alam passed almost A WEEK AFTER he was released by Border Patrol," the spokesperson said.
The Buffalo Police Department said in a preliminary timeline that Shah Alam was released from the Erie County Holding Center on Feb. 19. Shah Alam’s attorney reported him missing on Feb. 22, and he was found dead on Feb. 24, it said.
Burstein said at the news conference that officials did not know when Shah Alam died and that it was “impossible to know the exact date and time.” Any further details would be in the medical examiner’s autopsy report that they could not release publicly due to state laws, she said.
Posted by John3262005
3 Comments
Disgusting. CBP arrested a legal refugee and when they were forced to release him they just dropped a blind man who couldn’t speak English at a coffee shop and called it a day. Didn’t even inform his family or his lawyer. Then when he inevitably dies of exposure they insist their negligence had nothing to do with it.
While the state has no legal responsibility to ensure inmates have housing, employment or any kind of stability upon release (which I think is counterproductive and leads to recidivism), law enforcement agencies minimally have a duty to ensure vulnerable people in their custody (those with physical and mental disabilities that prevent them from properly caring for themselves) aren’t going to immediately die upon release.
Good. You don’t just get to dump a blind guy outdoors in a Buffalo winter and pretend like you get to clean your hands of the problem
Look at these assholes response to this:
> A Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said Shah Alam’s death “had NOTHING to do with Border Patrol.”
>”Mr. Shah Alam passed almost A WEEK AFTER he was released by Border Patrol,” the spokesperson said.
I abandoned you on a desert island and you died TWO WEEKS LATER. ITS NOT MY FAULT.
I hope people see a jail cell for this. Im worried theyll determine who is at fault and Trump will pardon them. But if there are state charges I think Trump and Miller just have to seethe about it right?
https://preview.redd.it/6678axgxessg1.jpeg?width=320&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2214202d6b83c696e739ff5e5badcfc52b608b90