The death of 13-year-old in Utica raising questions about children and guns

UTICA, N.Y. — The shooting of 13-year-old Nyah Mway raises more questions about a growing issue across the country — teens and guns.

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The question remains, why are guns in the hands of teenagers? In this case, a replica of a Glock 17 handgun was in the hands of Nyah the night he was killed.

When Utica Police first stopped him and his friend Friday night, they asked to search the teens for weapons. Nyah immediately ran, likely because police say he had a pellet gun on him.

Officers assumed the pellet gun was real since it had no orange tip or anything else to indicate it may be a pellet, BB, or any airsoft gun.

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“Everything in this facet of this weapon looked real,” said Lt. Michael Curley of the Utica Police Department. “It had Glock markings, it had a workable slide—which means if you manipulate the weapon it moves back and forth as a real weapon. It had a detachable magazine which looked like a real weapon. So to the naked eye, and even without extreme forensics evaluation, that weapon looked real in every single aspect.”

The ammunition from that pellet gun is metal pellets. Although very small, they are far from harmless. They have just enough power to injure and in some cases kill, especially children.

“We had a 15-year-old and 17-year-old killed both in the City of Utica in January,” said Curley. “It’s been going on ever since — that we’ve been involved in taking multiple weapons off individuals under the age of 18. I can't speak to why this individual felt he needed to carry a weapon that evening, I don't know.”

The Consumer Product Safety Commission reported that BB guns and pellet rifles cause an average of at least four deaths per year.

Legally, you have to be just 16 years old to purchase one.

While it’s difficult to speculate how else this could have turned out Friday night, the life of a 13-year-old now gone, is not the scenario his family nor community wanted.

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“There is a simple law for a family court act,” said Curley. “That an individual in possession of a realistic looking gun, a BB gun, a pellet gun or something like that, under the age of 16 —is a simple court offense. He would have not been in any trouble. They would have gone and been released. None of this would’ve happened. I'm not putting blame on anyone at this particular time, that’s not fair to anyone however, compliance with the police is always encouraged in every situation.”

The family members of this 13-year-old are refugees from Myanmar. Utica Police say they typically communicate with the city’s refugee population to let them know who they are, and how officers can be of help. Unfortunately, much of that work can be undone in just seconds in the case of Nyah Mway.