The death of Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a near-blind Rohingya refugee from Myanmar who was found dead in Buffalo days after U.S. Border Patrol agents dropped him off outside a closed Tim Hortons, has been ruled a homicide, a finding that is likely to intensify scrutiny of how federal immigration authorities handled one of the most disturbing refugee cases in New York this year.
Erie County officials said Wednesday that Shah Alam's cause of death was "complications of a perforated duodenal ulcer precipitated by hypothermia and dehydration," while the manner of death was classified as homicide. County Health Commissioner Dr. Gale Burstein said the ulcer was a medical emergency and that severe stress from exposure to extreme cold and lack of access to liquids contributed to the lethal sequence of events. Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said state law prevents the county from releasing the full autopsy publicly.
