The death of a nearly blind refugee from Myanmar who was found on a Buffalo street in February — five days after Border Patrol agents left him at a doughnut shop — has been ruled a homicide, authorities said Wednesday.
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 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, a Democrat, said at a news conference Wednesday, expressing condolences to Shah Alam’s family.
The state attorney general’s office and the Erie County district attorney’s office have been reviewing the case. Murad Awawdeh, president of the New York Immigration Coalition, called for a criminal investigation into the Border Patrol agents' conduct.
Shah Alam sought safety in the U.S. and "instead, he was left to die in the street,” Awawdeh said by email. “Every single person who was involved must be held responsible.”
Asked about the medical examiner's finding, U.S. Customs and Border Protection pointed 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, a spot chosen as “a warm, safe location” near his last known address.
“This death had NOTHING to do Border Patrol,” its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, said in a Feb. 27 social media post that the border agency also cited Wednesday.
The restaurant was closed when Shah Alam was dropped off there, Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan has said.
Shah Alam, 56, was a member of the Rohingya ethnic minority, who are nearly all denied citizenship and other rights in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
Shah Alam left Myanmar many years ago for Malaysia, where he worked in construction for many years. He got approval to come to the U.S. as a refugee and arrived in the United States with his wife and two of his children in December 2024, according to advocates for the family.
He 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. Police said he bit two officers; advocates for his family said he hadn't understood officers’ commands to drop the items.
He eventually pleaded guilty to two lesser, misdemeanor charges and was released from jail Feb. 19. Border Patrol then briefly detained him until determining that he wasn't eligible for deportation. His family, which had been awaiting his release from jail, wasn't informed of it.
Shah Alam’s lawyer ultimately reported him missing to Buffalo police on Feb. 22.
Two days later, 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, or when he died.
