A visually impaired refugee who was dropped in a parking lot at night in February by Border Patrol and found dead five days later died by homicide, authorities in Buffalo said.
Federal agents picked up Nurul Amin Shah Alam, 56, a Rohingya refugee from Myanmar who spoke little English, from a county jail on Feb. 19.
Hours later, security camera footage reviewed by The Washington Post showed Shah Alam stepping out of a white van near a Tim Hortons outlet after the store’s doors were locked. On Feb. 24, Shah Alam’s body was found about five miles away.
The Erie County Medical Examiner’s Office said Wednesday that the manner of Shah Alam’s death was homicide. The term means that the death resulted from the act of another person, the office said, which can include negligence and doesn’t imply intent to harm or indicate criminality.
The cause of death was complications from a perforated intestinal ulcer precipitated by hypothermia and dehydration, the office said.
The autopsy results sparked fresh calls to investigate the circumstances surrounding Shah Alam’s death, which provoked outrage in Buffalo.
Shah Alam was “a blind man who could not speak English and left outside a closed Tim Hortons coffee shop completely defenseless against the bitter cold February night by Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said in a statement. “Every individual involved in the death of Mr. Shah Alam must be held fully accountable.”
A spokeswoman for the Erie County District Attorney said the office is investigating Shah Alam’s death but declined to comment further.
Asked to comment on the autopsy results, a spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection replied with a statement. “Another hoax being peddled by the media and sanctuary politicians to demonize our law enforcement,” the spokesperson said. Shah Alam’s death “had NOTHING to do with Border Patrol,” adding that Shah Alam died “almost A WEEK AFTER he was released.”
Shah Alam was a member of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya minority and arrived in the United States as a refugee in December 2024.
Two months later, Shah Alam entered a stranger’s backyard in Buffalo’s Riverside neighborhood and damaged a door to a shed, prompting the resident to call 911, according to a police report. Responding officers fired Tasers at Shah Alam and said they received minor injuries in the ensuing scuffle.
In the body-camera footage from the arrest, Shah Alam can be heard speaking in Rohingya and Malay, trying to explain to the uncomprehending officers that he lives nearby and was going to the store.
Shah Alam pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors. On Feb. 19, he was set to be released on bond. Instead, Border Patrol took him into custody after the sheriff’s office informed the agency of his impending release, which the office described as standard practice.
However, Border Patrol agents found that Shah Alam was not deportable, a CBP spokesperson said in a statement in February. The agents offered Shah Alam “a courtesy ride, which he chose to accept to a coffee shop” near his last known address, the spokesperson said. Shah Alam showed “no signs of distress, mobility issues, or disabilities requiring special assistance.”
It is not clear where Shah Alam went after Border Patrol released him and no details have emerged about his whereabouts in the subsequent days. According to a timeline released by the Buffalo Police Department, a passerby saw him alive near a downtown sports arena around 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 24 and called 911 a few hours later when she noticed he was no longer moving.
Meanwhile, Shah Alam’s family had launched a frantic search, only for it to end in heartbreak.
Elected officials repeated their condolences to Shah Alam’s grieving family. “It should not have happened, simple as that,” Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz told reporters at a news conference on Wednesday. Shah Alam’s death “could have been prevented.”
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