Death of near-blind refugee — left at closed Tim Hortons by U.S. Border Patrol — ruled a homicide
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The death of a nearly blind refugee from Myanmar who was found on a Buffalo, N.Y., street in February — five days after U.S. Border Patrol agents left him outside a Tim Hortons — has been ruled a homicide.
The Erie County Medical Examiner’s Office didn’t reach any conclusions about responsibility for Nurul Amin Shah Alam’s death, which the agency said Wednesday was caused by complications of a perforated duodenal ulcer, precipitated by hypothermia and dehydration. Ruling a death a homicide means it resulted from another person’s actions — or inaction — but doesn’t necessarily mean that a crime was committed.
“This should not have happened,” Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said at a news conference Wednesday.
Asked whether the Border Patrol was responsible for his death, he declined to comment and said any such determination would be up to law enforcement agencies.
State Attorney General Letitia James and Erie County District Attorney Mike Keane noted Wednesday that their offices have been reviewing the case. Keane said in a statement that his office had requested Shah Alam’s full autopsy report but “it would be inappropriate” to comment further.
Border agency disavows responsibility
U.S. Customs and Border Protection pointed Wednesday to its previous statement that Shah Alam “showed no signs of distress, mobility issues, or disabilities requiring special assistance” when agents dropped him off Feb. 19 at a Tim Hortons restaurant.
“This death had NOTHING to do” with Border Patrol, its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, said in late February social media posts, decrying news coverage of the case as an effort “to demonize our law enforcement.”
Shah Alam was dropped off at this Tim Hortons coffee shop, seen on Feb. 27, which was closed. He was later found dead miles away. (Craig Ruttle/The Associated Press)
“Border Patrol agents offered him a courtesy ride, which he chose to accept to a coffee shop, determined to be a warm, safe location near his last known address, rather than be released directly from the Border Patrol station,” the agency said in a statement.
In fact, that Tim Hortons was closed when Shah Alam was dropped off. Surveillance video, obtained by local media outlet Investigative Post, showed Shah Alam treading carefully through its empty parking lot in his county-issued jail booties, pulling his hood up against the cold and walking off into the night.
Shah Alam’s lawyer ultimately reported him missing to Buffalo police on Feb. 22.
Immigrant advocates called Wednesday for justice for Shah Alam, a member of the Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority. The group has faced discrimination and oppression in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
Shah Alam sought safety in the U.S. and “instead, he was left to die in the street,” New York Immigration Coalition president Murad Awawdeh said, calling for a criminal investigation into the Border Patrol agents’ conduct: “Every single person who was involved must be held responsible.”
Governor slams ‘cruelty and inhumanity’
Gov. Kathy Hochul similarly called for accountability for everyone involved and said her aides spoke to the district attorney Wednesday afternoon. Hochul, a Democrat and Buffalo native, lambasted “the cruelty and inhumanity” of depositing a man who could barely see, or speak English, outside a then-closed restaurant.
Many details about the man’s health and final days aren’t publicly known, as his autopsy report is confidential under New York law.
But Erie County Health Commissioner Gale Burstein told reporters that Shah Alam developed what is commonly known as a stress ulcer. The ulcer breached his intestinal wall, creating what is generally a very painful medical emergency that needs rapid treatment, she said.
On Feb. 24, he was found dead near the downtown sports arena where the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres play. It was unclear how he got there from the Tim Hortons, several miles away, and Burstein said Wednesday that it was impossible to determine exactly when he died.
His family, which had been awaiting his release from jail, wasn’t informed of it, though local immigration advocates have previously said that Border Patrol isn’t legally required to do so.
A woman holds a picture of Shah Alam on Feb. 26, at a vigil in Buffalo. (Craig Ruttle/Reuters)
Shah Alam, 56, left Myanmar many years ago for Malaysia, where he worked in construction. He came to the U.S. as a refugee with his wife and two of his children in December 2024, according to advocates for the family.
Imran Fazal, who knows the family and founded a group called the Rohingya Empowerment Community, said Shah Alam’s death left people grieving and fearful.
“This tragedy was entirely preventable, and it reflects a serious failure in the systems meant to protect vulnerable people,” Fazal said Wednesday.
Shah Alam spent about a year in the Erie County jail on felony assault and other charges after a 2025 struggle with police who encountered him carrying what appeared to be curtain rods in the backyard of a residence that wasn’t his own.
Police said he bit two officers; advocates for his family said that he hadn’t understood officers’ commands to drop the items.
He eventually pleaded guilty to two lesser, misdemeanour charges and was released from jail Feb. 19. Border Patrol then briefly detained him before determining that he wasn’t eligible for deportation.
