The disability community is continuing to push for changes after blind Rohingya refugee Nurul Amin Shah Alam’s death was ruled a homicide this week by the Erie County Medical Examiner.
“We are not done talking about making sure that this will never happen to somebody else again," said Todd Vaarwerk, the chief policy officer for Western New York Independent Living, which advocates for the disability community.
Alam, who was blind and spoke little English, died days after Customs and Border Protection dropped him at a closed Tim Hortons. He died miles away from both where he was dropped off and his home.
Vaarwerk added the determination shows there is "seriousness about what they're saying about his death."
The National Association of Medical Examiners defines homicide as occurring "when death results from a volitional act committed by another person to cause fear, harm, or death," and that intent "is not required for classification as homicide."
The NAME also asserts a ruling of homicide "neither indicates nor implies criminal intent, which remains a determination within the province of legal processes."
Vaarwerk says he expected a determination like this.
"There are hundreds, potentially thousands of stories, where we have this conversation about, you know, 'neglect is never benign.' There's always impact," Vaarwerk, who is also disabled, said. "The homicide determination is about an overt act of a person that was part of the cause of somebody's death, right? But we'll spend forever trying to figure out which actions and which people were ultimately responsible, right?"
"So the major point is, it wasn't accidental. It wasn't, you know, a fluke or an act of God," Vaarwerk said. "It happened because someone either did something or didn't do something."
While county officials are limited in what can be shared from the autopsy, they reported "the cause of death was complications of a perforated duodenal ulcer precipitated by hypothermia and dehydration, and the manner of death was homicide.”
Dr. Gale Burstein, the county health commissioner, explained this is a type of stress ulcer the medical examiner believes was caused by experiencing hypothermia and not having liquids to drink. When an ulcer like this bursts open, it is a painful medical emergency that can result in death from digestive contents leaking into the abdomen.
Vaarwerk says his concern is now that the focus will become only the who and not the how.
"I think that people will kind of cast about, looking for blame, and while everybody's doing that, they're not going to actually look about the things that we need to fix to make sure it never happens again," he said.
The concerns many in the disability community have with Alam's experience as a blind refugee go back to before he even encountered police.
"If he'd have gotten into a disability agency, the first thing we would have done is said, look, here's a white cane," Vaarwerk said. "Police officers will understand what that means."
But no matter what a person uses as an aid or doesn't use, Vaarwerk says advocates believe law enforcement, at many levels, need more training on people with disabilities.
"There are certain things that the officers that originally picked him up on the trespassing charge, could have and should have known," Vaarwerk said. "There are definitely things that the people at the holding center could have or should have known about him and his disability prior to releasing him to Customs and Border Patrol."
"And then there's what Customs and Border Patrol knew or should have known, right?" Vaarwerk said. "These federally trained observers that couldn't figure out that the Tim Hortons was closed, right?"
Beyond training, Vaarwerk says throughout his custody, "despite being medically assessed when he came into the facility, nobody looked at how to improve his way-finding."
Vaarwerk says Alam's case raises questions of how police and federal agents identify and address accessibility needs.
"I would assume that a that a whole bunch of that ire is going to go to Customs and Border Protection, that has already said, 'well, he didn't give any indication that he needed special accommodations,' right?" Vaarwerk said. "I, as a disability advocate, I disagree with that. You know, I looked at his picture for two minutes and figured out that there might be a need."
Vaarwerk hopes the homicide ruling leads to changes to prevent the deaths of other people.
"For us, it's about recognizing what happened to him, but then also looking at the system and saying, what do we do to make sure it doesn't happen again?" Vaarwerk said.
