BUFFALO, NY — The body of Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a 56-year-old Rohingya refugee, was found on a downtown Buffalo sidewalk on February 24, 2026.
While the Medical Examiner has officially ruled his death as "health-related," ruling out homicide and exposure, the city is reeling from what Mayor Sean Ryan calls a "preventable and inhumane" failure of the system.
The question of who is actually to blame for a blind, non-English-speaking man being left to wander the streets alone has sparked a massive row between local and federal authorities.
**The "Misunderstanding" That Started It All
The nightmare began exactly one year ago. Shah Alam, who was visually impaired, was out for a walk using a curtain rod as a makeshift cane.
- **The Confusion: **He became disoriented and wandered onto someone's porch. When Buffalo police arrived, they reportedly gave him commands in English that he could not understand.
- **The Escalation: **According to his attorney, when the nearly blind man didn't drop his "weapon" (the curtain rod), officers tasered and beat him.
- **The Result: **Shah Alam spent an entire year in an Erie County jail for a crime rooted in a disability and a language barrier.
**The "Courtesy Ride" **
On February 19, 2026, after a year of legal limbo, Shah Alam took a plea deal and was granted bail.
Instead of going home to his family, he was transferred to U.S. Border Patrol due to an immigration detainer.
Once agents realized he was a legal refugee and could not be deported, they gave him what they called a "courtesy ride."
Rather than calling his family or attorney, agents dropped him off at a Tim Hortons five miles away from his home.
- **The Federal Defense: **Border Patrol claims he "showed no signs of distress or disabilities" and appeared to accept the ride voluntarily.
- **The Reality: **A man who could barely see, spoke no English, and used no electronic devices was left alone in the freezing Buffalo winter.
The Search: A Systemic Breakdown
The search for Shah Alam was hampered by yet another bureaucratic error.
A Buffalo Special Victims Unit detective reportedly closed his missing persons case for several hours on the Monday before his body was found.
The detective mistakenly believed Shah Alam was safely in custody at a federal detention center in Batavia.
By the time the case was reopened, it was too late.