The death of nearly blind Rohingya refugee, who’s body was found in Buffalo, New York, five days after Customs and Border Protection officers left him outside a closed coffee shop, was ruled a homicide by the county medical examiner.
Nurul Amin Shah Alam, 56, who came to the United States from Myanmar in 2024, was found dead on a Buffalo street on Feb. 24. He went missing after the CBP officers left him outside a closed Tim Hortons coffee shop on a frigid night earlier that month.
Shah Alam died of a perforated ulcer caused by hypothermia and dehydration, according to Dr. Gale R. Burstein, the Erie County Department of Health commissioner.
“This was basically a stress ulcer,” Burstein said during a news conference Wednesday evening. “This is actually precipitated by body’s physiologic response to severe stress, and that stress was felt to be hypothermia, being in very cold temperatures and dehydration, so no access to liquids.”
Shah Alam’s cause of death has drawn outrage from officials in New York and across the country. Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., called it “cruel” and “inhumane,” demanding the CBP officers involved in the incident be held accountable.
“He was a blind man who could not speak English left at a closed coffee shop with slippers on on a cold, cold night in Buffalo,” Hochul said in a video statement, “left there by Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security ICE agents.”
“The cruelty and inhumanity of these actions should shock the conscience of every American,” the governor added.
The Erie County district attorney is investigating the death, Hochul said. New York Attorney General Letitia James said her office is also investigating “the circumstances and treatment” that led to Shah Alam’s death.
The medical examiner said the death was caused by “negligent acts or omissions or inaction,” Burstein said, noting that “using the word homicide to describe the manner of death” is a clinical medical label and bears no legal weight. Only a court of law has the power to prove criminal intent to cause harm or death.
Recommended
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security called the homicide ruling “another hoax being peddled by the media and sanctuary politicians to demonize our law enforcement” in a statement to MS NOW, adding, “This death had NOTHING to do with Border Patrol.”
The Erie County Department of Health did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s request for comment.
Shah Alam was jailed last year. A federal immigration detainer, a formal notice that informs federal, state and local law enforcement agencies that Immigration and Customs Enforcement will assume custody of a person once they are released, was issued after his arrest.
Shah Alam agreed to a plea deal on Feb. 9 and was scheduled to be sentenced on March 24. He was released from custody on bail in February. The Erie County district attorney’s office told MS NOW it was not notified that the refugee had been released from jail until after his death.
A spokesperson for CBP told MS NOW after Shah Alam was found dead that he could not be deported because of his refugee status. They said the CBP officers took him to the coffee shop as a “courtesy ride,” rather than releasing him “directly from the Border Patrol station.”
Ebony Davis contributed to this report.
Sydney Carruth is a breaking news reporter covering national politics and policy for MS NOW. You can send her tips from a non-work device on Signal at SydneyCarruth.46 or follow her work on X and Bluesky.