Crowd demands justice in police killing of 38-year-old Austin man

Emily Cutts, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.
·2 min read

Dec. 30—AUSTIN — Dorothy Gales stood in the intersection of Second Avenue Northeast and Main Street North, tears streaming down her face, screaming "No justice. No peace."

Surrounded by about 100 other people, Gales was speaking out for her fiancee and the father of her children, 38-year-old Kokou Christopher Fiafonou.

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Fiafonou

died Thursday, Dec. 23, as a result of multiple gunshot wounds while he was being apprehended by police. His death has been ruled a homicide by the Southern Minnesota Regional Medical Examiner's Office.

Fiafonou's death came after a more than 24-hour standoff with law enforcement, who have said that Fiafonou had a knife and threatened to hurt others. They followed him to an apartment, where the long standoff took place. After, Fiafonou left the residence, around 9:30 p.m., and reportedly confronted officers in the parking lot of a Kwik Trip gas station when a 2-year veteran of the police department shot him.

The officer, Zachary Gast, has been placed on standard administrative leave. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating the incident.

On Thursday, Dec. 30, a week after Fiafonou's death, people from Austin and around the state gathered outside with three demands: release all video footage of the incident to the family at once; fire and prosecute all officers involved; and compensate the family for their loss.

"My cousin is a good man. Everybody he sees, he put a smile on his face," David Kodzode said of Fiafonou. "Everybody loved him. He's a good man. He cared for everybody. He is the person that when you have any issue, you go to him, he will pray for you, he will make sure he helps you out."

Around 3:15 p.m., about half the crowd moved from downtown Austin to the Kwik Trip gas station where Fiafonou was killed.

A small memorial of flowers and candles was left in the parking lot. By 4:45 p.m., the crowd had left and the gas station, which had been temporarily closed as protesters took over the parking lot, reopened.