Pallbearers carry the casket of 13-year-old Nyah Mway out of the Friedel, Williams & Edmunds Funeral Home in Utica following a funeral service Saturday morning. The street was lined with mourners, many of whom are members of the Karen ethnic community. Joe Luker, of the funeral home, leads the casket. (Photo provided —The Daily Sentinel)

UTICA — Hundreds of mourners turned out Saturday morning to pay their respects to 13-year-old Nyah Mway, the Utica teen who was shot and killed by a police officer on Friday, June 28. The service and burial at a local cemetery were a quiet and somber affair on the city’s west side.

Many of those same mourners will be out in force next weekend because a peaceful march is planned to seek justice for Mway. The march will take place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, July 13 — the day before the Boilermaker Road Race — and will go from Thomas R. Proctor Park to Roscoe Conkling Park.

Saturday’s funeral service was held at Friedel, Williams & Edmunds Funeral Home on Court Street. Mway and his family are members of the Karen ethnic community in Utica, and many people wore traditional Karen clothing and colors to the funeral. The mourners filled both the funeral home and the sidewalk outside as they paid their respects.

Mway’s family is of the Buddhist faith, of the Buddha Dama Thuka Temple in Frankfort, according to spokespeople for the Karen community. Several monks provided a religious service. The funeral lasted about an hour before the casket was carried outside to a waiting hearse and Mway’s body was taken for a private community burial at a local cemetery.

Authorities said Mway and another teen were stopped in the 900 block of Shaw Street shortly after 10 p.m. Friday, June 28 as part of an ongoing criminal investigation. Police said Mway fled on foot from the officers, who immediately gave chase. Authorities said Mway pulled out what appeared to be a handgun and pointed it at the officers, at which point he was taken to the ground and shot once in the chest by Police Officer Patrick Husnay. The gun was found to be a replica Glock pellet gun.

The New York State Attorney General’s Office is investigating the officer-involved shooting — as per state law — and will decide if the officer was justified in pulling the trigger. Husnay and two fellow officers from the scene are on paid administrative leave.

The Karen community has held several protests since the shooting and have organized a “Justice for Nyah” campaign, including the website at www.justicefornyah.com.