One year after he was Tasered, beaten and arrested by police in Buffalo, New York, a 56-year-old refugee from Myanmar was picked up by Border Patrol agents from a local jail and dropped off outside a Tim Horton’s coffee shop before he was found dead on the street one week later.
Video surveillance footage shows a white van dropping Nurul Amin Shah Alam in a shopping center parking lot more than an hour after the shop had already closed. He wasn’t wearing shoes, only the orange booties that were issued by the jail.
Cameras never showed him entering the shop, and he wasn’t seen again until five days later, when a woman called 911 to report his body on the street more than five miles away.
The case of Shah Alam, who was nearly blind and spoke only little English, has shocked Buffalo’s Rohingya community and outraged residents and advocates who have raised alarms for months about the Trump administration’s treatment of vulnerable immigrants, refugees and their families.
A timeline of events before his death on the streets of Buffalo before punishing winter weather are now raising critical questions about local law enforcement’s handling of his case and their cooperation with federal immigration authorities who failed to notify his family that he was no longer in custody.
New York Attorney General Letitia James says her office is reviewing legal options. Members of Congress are also demanding investigations.
February 15, 2025
Shah Alam, a member of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya minority, arrived in the United States as a refugee in December 2024 with his wife and two sons.
Two months later, on the morning of February 15, 2025, he had wandered into a person’s backyard in the Riverside neighborhood.
After buying a curtain rod, he mistakenly entered the person’s property, according to the Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo, which represented Shah Alam.
According to body-worn camera footage of the incident, officers can be heard shouting out “what are you doing” and repeatedly ordering him to drop the rod in his hands. “Put it down or you’re going to get Tased,” one officer shouts.
He then sticks the rod into the snow and stands beside it while officers continue to order him to place it on the ground. He then places his hand out in front of the officers while they threaten to fire their Tasers, which they point at him throughout the incident.
Shah Alam, who is speaking Ruáingga throughout the incident, then appears to raise the rod to defend himself, and the officers fire.
Once on the ground, one officer calls Shah Alam a “f****** a******” and punches him in the head.
An officer later says Shah Alam bit the officers..
“He’s gonna be injured. I don’t know how bad,” an officer says. “He got hit by all four [Tasers] and still came at us with the f****** poles. He almost got shot.”
The next day, he was arraigned in Buffalo City Court and held on bail set at $25,000. A federal immigration detainer alerting federal authorities he was in custody was issued after his arrest, according to the Erie County District Attorney’s Office.
May 2025
Shah Alam remained in the local jail, and a grand jury indictment followed four months later.
He was indicted for felony assault, burglary and criminal mischief charges.
His bail was lowered to $5,000, but Shah Alam’s family decided to keep him in the jail where they could visit him, fearing that Immigration and Customs Enforcement would pick him up and send him to a detention center outside of Buffalo, or deport him.
Earlier this month, Shah Alam agreed to plead guilty to reduced charges of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree and one count of criminal trespass in the third degree, according to District Attorney Michael J. Keane.
His sentencing was scheduled for March 24.
“My decision was the result of a comprehensive evaluation of his conduct, criminal history, acceptance of responsibility, medical condition, time served in pre-trial custody, and the proposed resolution,” Keane said in a statement shared with The Independent. “I also considered the significant collateral consequences that would result from a felony conviction — including mandatory deportation.”
February 19
Shah Alam’s guilty plea did not make eligible for ICE detention or removal from the country, according to his attorneys.
At 5:25 p.m. February 19, sheriff’s deputies at the Erie County Holding Center handed him over to Customs and Border Protection officers, according to a timeline from the Buffalo Police Department.
Keane, the district attorney, was not aware of his release into immigration custody until the day he died, he said.
When Border Patrol agents picked him up, they shortly realized he wasn’t supposed to be deported. Officers instead offered him “courtesy ride” to a Tim Horton’s coffee shop, which was “determined to be a warm, safe location near his last known address,” according to a statement from the agency.
He showed no signs of distress, mobility issues, or disabilities requiring special assistance, the agency said in a statement.
His family was not contacted.
Video surveillance footage obtained by The Washington Post and Buffalo’s Investigative Post shows Shah Alam exiting a white van in a shopping plaza after 8 p.m., more than an hour after Tim Horton’s had closed for the night.
The van leaves one minute after dropping him off.
He walks slowly past the coffee shop’s drive-through window, which was open, and pulls the black hood of his jacket over his head, according to the video. Footage does not show him trying to enter.
Six minutes after leaving the van, the man walks away through a parking lot then disappears from view. He never made it home.
February 22-24
Shah Alam’s Legal Aid Bureau attorney Benjamin Macaluso filed a missing persons report on Sunday with the Buffalo Police Department, according to police.
Macaluso said he was “unable to confirm his client’s current location despite contacting federal authorities,” police said.
The next day, police launched an investigation and mistakenly determined that Shah Alam was in federal custody — and then closed the case. The detective handling the case corrected the error four hours later.
On Tuesday, police issued a missing person poster on social media.
That night, police began canvassing the area, including previous known addresses as well as local hospitals and shelters.
Between his arrest and release, Shah Alam’s family had moved across town, roughly five miles away from where he was dropped off.
February 25
According to police, a woman called 911 at 8:29 p.m. Tuesday to report an “unresponsive male wearing a dark parka and khaki pants who appeared not to be breathing, with his hands described as gray in color.”
She said the man was moving three hours earlier but, when she passed by the same area that night, he was still on the ground “and no longer moving, at which time 911 was contacted,” according to police.
Buffalo Fire Department personnel arrived on the scene and initiated chest compressions. Buffalo Police officers also administered Narcan. Emergency responders pronounced him dead.
Shah Alam was more than five miles south of where Borders Patrol officers left him.
February 26
According to police, Shah Alam’s family was notified of his death by the Erie County Medical Examiner’s Office shortly after 10 a.m. Wednesday.
His death was determined to be “health related in nature,” according to a spokesperson for the city. The medical examiner has not yet determined a cause or manner of death.
