Shah Alam had been in the Erie County Holding Center since February 2025 after being arrested by Buffalo police. On February 15 last year, he had been out for a walk in his neighborhood and had been using a curtain rod he purchased as a walking stick.
Nearly blind and with no ability to speak English, Shah Alam got lost and ended up on the porch of a woman’s home as she was letting her dog out, according to Macaluso. Shah Alam is completely blind in one eye and can only see with blurry vision for several feet in the other, according to Macaluso.
The woman called police, Macaluso said. When Shah Alam did not follow police commands to drop his curtain rod, they Tasered and beat him, then arrested him, Macaluso said. The officers suffered minor injuries in the scuffle, he said.
A spokesperson for Border Patrol, in a statement Wednesday evening, said after agents determined Shah Alam was not supposed to be in their custody, they “offered him a courtesy ride, which he chose to accept to a coffee shop.” That Tim Hortons, the spokesperson said, was “determined to be a warm, safe location near his last known address, rather than be released directly from the Border Patrol station.”
Agents, however, did not notify Macaluso or Shah Alam’s family of his release to the coffee shop. Macaluso previously told Investigative Post he expected Shah Alam to be taken to the ICE detention center in Batavia and that his client would be released from there.
Communication is not an option when the man speaks no English and is functionally blind. You can’t mime any thing. You wouldn’t have been able to guess his language either to use a translator app, because it’s not like he was speaking something recognizable to the average American.
I agree, calling the police is a gamble at best, but so is letting a stranger into your home who is holding a curtain rod. It was not obviously a walking stick with red tape on the end. Unfortunately, as a woman in America, your default is to be wary if not afraid of men.
This situation just sucks for everyone involved, and is a downright tragedy for the man. He was abused by the authorities, not the random woman whose porch he ended up on.