Garang Hakim Aluong, 37, a Black man, was shot in the early hours of November 7, 2021, outside Giliberto's Restaurant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, after a late-night gathering in the parking lot turned volatile. Police later described a scene with more than 40 people in the 700 block of South Minnesota Avenue around 2:40 a.m., where two groups who apparently knew each other slid from argument into physical conflict, and then into gunfire when someone produced a handgun and began shooting.
Aluong was rushed to a Sioux Falls hospital but died from his injuries, while two other men—ages 26 and 29—were also wounded, one in the leg and the other in the arm, as vehicles in the lot were struck in the chaos.
In the immediate aftermath, investigators leaned heavily on witnesses and whatever the crowd had captured on their phones, telling the public they still lacked a clear person of interest and urging anyone with information to come forward. That uncertainty shaped the early narrative of the case: a crowded parking lot, a sudden eruption of violence, and a struggle to separate rumor from evidence while the city tried to make sense of a killing that unfolded in minutes but left consequences that would stretch for years.
One man, Isaac Mohammod Wali, was arrested at the scene—but at first, police publicly framed that arrest as tied to what happened right after the shooting rather than the shooting itself. Officers said Wali nearly ran over a responding officer while leaving, sparking a pursuit that ended near 29th Street and Euclid Avenue when his vehicle became disabled; he was booked on allegations including aggravated assault on law enforcement, aggravated eluding, resisting arrest, and fleeing. At that stage, police said he had no weapon on him and was not directly linked to the gunfire, even as detectives continued collecting leads from a crowded, fast-moving scene.
Over time, the investigation and prosecutions centered on two suspects: Wali and Antoine Demetrius Richardson Jr. On November 30, 2023, South Dakota's attorney general announced that both men had been convicted and sentenced after plea bargains connected to the November 2021 fatal shooting at Giliberto's Mexican Taco Shop. The announcement stated that Wali pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and received a 30-year prison sentence with 17 years suspended, while Richardson pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm while having a felony drug conviction and received a suspended sentence of 42 months in prison. The state identified the shooting as the incident that resulted in Aluong's death and said another person was injured, with the case investigated by the Sioux Falls Police Department and prosecuted by the South Dakota Attorney General's Office.
Away from the courtroom language, the life interrupted by the shooting was remembered in family terms: an “unexpected” passing that left siblings, nieces and nephews, and a teenage daughter grieving. An online memorial described Aluong as someone who spent much of his life in Sioux Falls, worked at places including Smithfield and Peska Construction, and was known for being relaxed and kind—details that sharpen the contrast between the ordinary routines of a working life and the abrupt violence of that November morning.
