Rhus Asefaw, 26, male, was working as a convenience-store clerk at the Citgo station at 500 Main Street in East Nashville when an argument with a 15-year-old customer escalated into a confrontation on Monday, April 10, 2017. According to police, the dispute turned physical inside the store until a co-worker stepped in and managed to break it up, creating a brief lull that might have seemed like the end of it.
But the calm didn’t hold.
Investigators said the 15-year-old left the store, only to return a few minutes later, and the conflict spilled outside. Police reported that Asefaw ran out of the business swinging a metal pole, transforming a tense exchange into something far more volatile in a matter of moments.
Outside, the situation escalated again when the 15-year-old’s 17-year-old brother became involved. Detectives said the older teen punched Asefaw in the head, and Asefaw struck his head against a cinder block wall during the altercation, leaving him with a head injury that proved catastrophic.
Asefaw died on Wednesday, April 12, 2017, after the fight and resulting injury. In the aftermath, investigators interviewed the two teenage brothers and other witnesses while the case was reviewed for possible criminal accountability; police stated that the District Attorney would consider whether charges were appropriate, and no arrests or filed charges were reported in the publicly available account of the investigation at that time.
