Ranlo Police officer charged with murder loses job

Kara Fohner, The Gaston Gazette
·2 min read

The town of Ranlo has fired a police officer accused of shooting and killing a man while off-duty.

Kwaku Riley Agyapon received a notice of termination on Jan. 10. The notice was delivered to the Cleveland County Jail, where he is currently incarcerated, according to the town. It is not unusual for the Sheriff's Office to transfer inmates to neighboring counties for security reasons if they have a background in law enforcement.

Former Ranlo Police Officer Kwaku Riley Agyapon has been fired following his arrest on the charge of first-degree murder in the Jan. 1, 2023, death of Juan Nikely Avalo.
Former Ranlo Police Officer Kwaku Riley Agyapon has been fired following his arrest on the charge of first-degree murder in the Jan. 1, 2023, death of Juan Nikely Avalo.

The notice the town delivered to the jail lists Agyapon's arrest, the first-degree murder charge he faces, and his current incarceration without bond as causes for his termination.

Agyapon was expected to sign the notice to acknowledge that he received it. He refused to sign it, according to a handwritten note jotted at the bottom of the notice.

His firing marks the latest development in a case that has confounded the Ranlo community.

Agyapon, 34, stands accused of using his service weapon to kill 33-year-old Juan Nikely Avalo at the deceased man's Burlington Avenue home at 2:15 a.m. on Jan. 1.

He is charged with first-degree murder in the killing.

Since the killing, Agyapon also has been the subject of an internal investigation at the Ranlo Police Department. Agyapon remained in contact with the accuser in a Nov. 28 domestic dispute at Avalo's home on Burlington Avenue.

In that dispute, Avalo was accused of assaulting and threatening a woman.

Kwaku Agyapon is walked into Gaston County District Court on Wednesday, Jan. 4.
Kwaku Agyapon is walked into Gaston County District Court on Wednesday, Jan. 4.

Ranlo town officials have declined to say whether Agyapon violated police department policy by remaining in contact with the accuser in the dispute. Agyapon was hired at Ranlo in August 2022, and he was four months into a 12 month probationary period with the town.

A page on the fundraising site GoFundMe created in support of Agyapon was shared on Facebook on Jan. 6 by his wife, Shanna Lanham, who herself was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Addison, in 2011.

Shanna Lanham talks with her attorney, Gus Anthony, in the courtroom before pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the death of her daughter, Addison Grace Lanham, who died on July 21, 2011.
Shanna Lanham talks with her attorney, Gus Anthony, in the courtroom before pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the death of her daughter, Addison Grace Lanham, who died on July 21, 2011.

The GoFundMe page has since been taken down.

This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Ranlo police officer charged with murder loses job