Police are investigating the death of a Myanmar fugitive after he was released from US custody
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A nearly blind fugitive from Myanmar who has been missing since being released from a Buffalo, NY prison in US Border Patrol custody has been found dead on a downtown street, city authorities said.
Police in the western part of New York City found the body of Nurul Amin Shah Alam, 56, on Tuesday night, said a spokesperson for the Buffalo Police Department.
Shah Alam has been missing since Feb. 19, when US Border Patrol dropped him off at a coffee shop miles from his home following his release from the county jail, where he had spent much of the past year awaiting trial on criminal charges that led to a plea deal.
Homicide detectives are investigating the circumstances of Shah Alam’s death, a police spokesman said.
Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan, a Democrat, said in a statement Wednesday that Shah Alam’s death could have been prevented and was the result of “inhumane” decisions by federal authorities.
“A vulnerable man – nearly blind and unable to speak English – was left alone on a cold winter’s night with no one to leave him in a safe and secure place,” Ryan said. “That decision from US Customs and Border Protection was unreasonable and inhumane.”
In a statement sent to Buffalo’s NBC affiliate WGRZ, a CBP spokesperson said agents left Shah Alam at the coffee shop after agents determined he had entered the country as a fugitive and would not be deported. Shah Alam “showed no signs of depression, mobility problems, or disabilities requiring special assistance,” she said.
“Border Patrol staff offered him a ride, and he chose to meet him at a coffee shop, determined to be a warm and safe place near his last known address, rather than being released at a Border Patrol police station,” the agency said.
The Erie County District Attorney’s Office said Shah Alam was arrested last year following an incident that resulted in minor injuries to two Buffalo police officers. Shah Alam was released on bail this month after he entered a plea deal, the district attorney’s office said.
After Shah Alam’s arrest, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued an immigration detainer, a formal request to keep a noncitizen after his scheduled release from criminal detention.
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The family did not know that he had been released
In response to the arrest, the Erie County Sheriff’s Office contacted the US Border Patrol prior to Shah Alam’s release, a sheriff’s office spokeswoman said. Mohammad Faisal, one of Shah Alam’s children, said in his father’s message that he was arrested last year because of a disagreement with the police.
Shah Alam, who did not speak English, had been traveling on his own and was using a curtain he bought as a walking stick, Faisal said. Shah Alam got lost and entered the residence of a resident of Buffalo who called the police, said Faisal.
When Shah Alam did not understand the police’s orders to throw away his curtain, they arrested him, his son said.
When he was released last week, “No one told me or my family or my lawyer where my father was dropped,” Faisal said.
A Buffalo-area immigration attorney told WGRZ that federal officials are not required to notify families when they release adults from custody.
As US President Donald Trump’s decision to freeze most foreign aid for 90 days reverberates around the world, CBC’s Salimah Shijvi looks at how the cuts are making life even harder for Rohingya refugees being persecuted inside Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh – the world’s largest refugee camp.
The family are Arakan Rohingya refugees, he said.
A CBP press release in Buffalo indicated that Shah Alam entered the US as a fugitive on Dec. 24, 2024.
Myanmar has denied allegations of genocide linked to a 2017 military-led offensive that forced at least 730,000 Rohingya from their homes. Many have since labored in the camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, where some human rights activists say conditions are worsening following aid cuts by Donald Trump’s second-term president.
