Erie County Health Commissioner Dr. Gail Burstein and County Executive Mark Poloncarz answer questions about Shah Alam autopsy. Photo by J. Dale Shoemaker.
The death of Rohingya refugee Nurul Amin Shah Alam has been ruled a homicide, according to the Erie County Medical Examiner.
Homicide, the medical examiner’s office said in a statement, can include death by negligence. In Shah Alam’s case, an autopsy appears to pin that negligence on the Border Patrol agents who left him February 19 at a closed Tim Hortons in the Riverside neighborhood, some five miles from his home. Shah Alam died five days later outside the KeyBank Center hockey arena.
Shah Alam, the autopsy notes, “was placed into a hostile environment that he could not reasonably be expected to extricate himself.”
The Medical Examiner’s office said Wednesday that a burst ulcer in Shah Alam’s small intestine caused his death. Exposure to the February cold and a lack of water — hypothermia and dehydration — “precipitated” the ulcer, the Medical Examiner’s office said.
At a press conference Wednesday, Dr. Gale Burstein, the Erie County Commissioner of Health, said Shah Alam had developed a serious “stress ulcer” that, when it burst, ruptured his small intestine.
“All that acid and other digestive secretions spill out into the [body cavity],” Dr. Burstein said. “It’s not something that people can live with … for a very long period of time. It’s a medical emergency.”
What remains unclear is when Shah Alam developed the ulcer, whether while incarcerated at the Erie County Holding Center or after he was transferred to Border Patrol custody. Burstein and Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said Wednesday they couldn’t comment on that point.
Video of Shah Alam being dropped off at Tim Hortons.
Terrence Connors, an attorney representing Shah Alam’s wife and sons, termed the Border Patrol’s actions “irresponsible and we intend to seek justice for his family and bring focus on the failures so that this never happens again.”
Connors shared a small portion of the autopsy’s findings with Investigative Post but declined to provide a copy of the full report. Erie County officials said Wednesday they were prohibited by state law from releasing the report.
In a brief interview, Connors said he was having medical experts examine the autopsy report in an attempt to determine when Shah Alam developed the ulcer. He added he was appreciative of the Medical Examiner’s office for exercising “independence” in this case.
“I was concerned that there was a possibility that there would be some effort to brush aside the cause of death, but they have taken it head on,” he said.
Connors indicated that his next step in representing Shah Alam’s family is filing a lawsuit.
“Now that we have the medical evidence and the cause of death, we will look into the filing of the necessary documents to hold the individuals and the entities responsible for his death,” he said.
Asked if he blamed Border Patrol for Shah Alam’s death, Connors said he’s “looking at the Border Patrol as well as other entities.”
A spokesperson for Border Patrol did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday.