Nurul Amin Shah Alam\u00a0<\/a>was found dead February 24, days after he was reported missing by his attorney.<\/p>\nThe medical examiner’s office ruled the cause manner of death was due to “complications of a perforated duodenal ulcer precipitated by hypothermia and dehydration, and the manner of death was homicide.”<\/p>\n
The final determination on cause of death and manner was concluded on March 31 and Shah Alam’s family was notified of the findings on April 1.<\/p>\n
According to the medical examiner’s office, the cause of death is the disease or injury that sets off the chain of events leading to death, while the manner of death explains the circumstances around it. A homicide simply means death caused by another person\u2019s actions, not necessarily intent or a crime.<\/p>\n
Shah Alam was arrested by police in February 2025 and had been in the Erie County Jail until his release Feb. 19, 2026. US Customs and Border Protection say they were notified by the Erie County Sheriff’s Office about Shah Alam. Border Patrol agents confirmed that Shah Alam had entered the country as a refugee and could not be removed. \u00a0They say agents offered him a ride, and he was dropped off at a coffee shop.<\/p>\n
On February 22, a missing person report was filed by an attorney with Legal Aid when they could not locate Shah Alam.<\/p>\n
On February 23, Buffalo Police investigation led them to believe that the missing person was in the custody of federal authorities. The Buffalo Police Department updated the status of the case to ‘Closed’ within the Department\u2019s internal case management system. However, upon further investigation, Buffalo Police received information that the initial report was inaccurate and that Shah Alam was not in custody of federal authorities and the missing person case was reopened.<\/p>\n
Shah Alam was found dead on Perry Street February 24.<\/p>\n
New York State Attorney General Letitia James released this statement after the results were shared publicly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy heart is with Nurul Amin Shah Alam\u2019s loved ones today, as it has been since we first learned of his tragic death.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Shah Alam fled genocide to build a life in this country. Instead, he was abandoned and left to suffer alone in his final hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo New Yorker should be treated this way. My office is continuing our review of the circumstances and treatment that led to Mr. Shah Alam\u2019s death.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Erie County Medical Examiner’s Office has ruled the death of a blind refugee, previously held by police,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[70268,70266,136,142,58304,60064,138,137,11613,40474,70267,58299],"class_list":["post-154957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-buffalo-police","tag-cause-of-death","tag-erie","tag-erie-county","tag-erie-county-jail","tag-erie-county-sheriff39s-office","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-manner-of-death","tag-medical-examiner39s-office","tag-missing-person-report","tag-shah-alam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}