An emotionally charged public meeting was held Sunday between Utica Mayor Michael Galime and the community.

The meeting at Utica’s Tabernacle Baptist Church was held with members of the Karen community — an ethnic group from Myanmar that included 13-year-old Nyah Mway, who was shot and killed by Utica police Friday evening after police said he brandished what was ultimately determined to be a pellet gun.

Galime says he has always been focused on keeping young people safe.

"One of the biggest things I've concentrated on, from long before, just as a person, working on the council, and now as the person leading our city, has been both youth violence and the safety of our youth,” the mayor said.

But members of the community say more needs to be done, from questioning the training of the officers to saying race played a role in the incident.

"You do not know racism. These people know racism; I know racism,” one attendee said to the mayor during the meeting. “There is a history of police and community dysfunction."

"If it was two white males walking at 10 p.m. on the streets, you would not stop them,” another attendee said.

Galime said he understood attendees’ anger, and added he would stand by the findings of the state attorney general’s office once its investigation is complete.

"The decision that's made by the attorney general is going to be what I have to uphold,” Galime said.