Feds Drop Blind Buffalo Dad At Coffee Shop, He Turns Up Dead Across Town

Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a 56-year-old Rohingya refugee who was nearly blind, was found dead Tuesday night on Perry Street in Buffalo after federal agents released him from custody and left him at a coffee shop across town, according to his family and city officials. He had been missing since last Thursday, when Border Patrol picked him up at the Erie County Holding Center, and relatives spent days searching for him with no information about where he was. Buffalo police and the Erie County Medical Examiner later identified his body and opened an inquiry into how he was released and what happened in the days before his death.

Where He Was Found And What The Medical Examiner Said

Buffalo police say B District officers responded to a call for a dead body on the first block of Perry Street and later confirmed the man was Shah Alam, according to city officials. The Erie County Medical Examiner performed an autopsy. As reported by PEOPLE, the medical examiner described his death as “health related in nature” and said that exposure and homicide were ruled out in the initial findings. Homicide detectives are still investigating the timeframe and the events that took place between his release and when his body was discovered, the department said.

How He Landed In Custody And Then On The Street

Local reporting traces Shah Alam’s case to a 2025 arrest after he became lost while walking and used a curtain rod as a makeshift cane. He spent months in the Erie County Holding Center and had arrived in Buffalo as a refugee in December 2024. According to Investigative Post, Shah Alam pleaded to reduced charges so he could avoid out-of-state immigration detention, posted bail last Thursday, and his attorney says Border Patrol agents took him from county custody that afternoon.

Border Patrol's Version Of Events

In a statement shared with national outlets, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said agents “offered him a courtesy ride, which he chose to accept to a coffee shop, determined to be a warm, safe location near his last known address, rather than be released directly from the Border Patrol station.” That account, reported by PEOPLE, is strongly disputed by Shah Alam’s attorney and advocates, who say neither his family nor his lawyer were told that he was being released.

Officials Demand Answers

Buffalo Mayor Sean M. Ryan called the death “preventable” and a “dereliction of duty” by federal agents in a city statement, arguing that a vulnerable man was left alone on a cold night without any apparent effort to place him somewhere safe. The mayor’s full remarks appear on the City of Buffalo website, which also states that U.S. Customs and Border Protection must explain how and why the release unfolded the way it did. Governor Kathy Hochul weighed in on X, calling for accountability and writing that “we can secure our borders and still show basic humanity,” as seen in the post embedded above.

Investigation And Legal Fallout

The Erie County District Attorney’s Office said it will review the case and has indicated it will move to dismiss the criminal charges against Shah Alam once officials receive his death certificate, according to reporting by local public media. Investigative Post and other regional outlets report that Buffalo police homicide detectives are examining the timeline between his release and when his body was found, and federal authorities have been asked to account for how they handled his transfer and release.

Advocates for refugees and civil-rights groups are calling for a transparent, interagency review to determine whether existing policies or practices left a non-English-speaking, visually impaired man at risk. As those questions pile up, his family is grieving, and local officials say they want a full accounting of who knew what and when as the investigation moves forward.