Fiafonou is originally from Togo in West Africa. Michelle Gross, president of Communities United Against Police Brutality said Fiafonou was very religious and would often walk to a local park to pray.
“He would cut little scrapings of wood like pieces of tree bark and little twigs, and he would burn them, and he would pray over the fires, and he believed that his prayers would go up in smoke up to heaven and that was his belief, and he had a little wood cutting knife and it wasn’t a machete,” Gross said.
Austin Police said they were called to Fiafonou’s location after someone alleged he was walking in traffic armed with a machete. Police alleged they sought verbal compliance from Fiafonou and followed him to his home. Police claim Fiafonou threatened to hurt other people making them call their serious incident response team.
Police shot tear gas and other projectiles in the home for several hours to get Fiafonou outside the home. Gross says police eventually left the scene and the next day around 6 PM police continued to monitor Fiafonou for what they claim was to ensure public safety.
At 9:30 that night, Fiafonou walked to a nearby gas station for groceries, and he encountered police once again.
“He walks up to the Kwik Trip, goes into the Kwik Trip, and the cops are watching all of this, and they let him go in the Kwik Trip, he buys his groceries and comes out he’s got two bags of groceries and they gun him down where he’s standing,” Gross said.
Austin police claim Fiafonou confronted them armed with a knife, leading to Officer Zachary Gast fatally shooting the 38-year-old. The shooting is currently under investigation by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety and the agency. The Austin Police Department does not use body cameras but dashcam video of the incident exist.
Gross thinks the shooting was, “predicated on racism” and she has little confidence in the state agency in charge of the investigation, “that is not the agency that ought to be doing this investigation because they clear the cops every flipping time.”
