Nuer Abraham Yuek, a 19-year-old male, Ethiopian-born, was shot on the night of July 30, 2020, inside a home near North 31st and Seward Streets in Omaha. Police were dispatched around 9:06 p.m. and found him in the basement with a gunshot wound to the chest; he was taken to Nebraska Medicine where he was pronounced dead. Born on May 6, 2001, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, he had reunited with family in Nebraska years earlier.
Detectives quickly focused on 20-year-old Keat Thon, who had called 911. He was arrested without incident and booked into Douglas County Corrections on counts of manslaughter, use of a weapon to commit a felony, and possession of a stolen firearm. Investigators later documented that Thon admitted he and Yuek had been messing around with the firearm, that he pointed it and pulled the trigger believing there were no live rounds, and that afterward he hid the gun in bushes outside the residence at 1520 N. 31st Street.
Thon ultimately pled no contest to manslaughter in Douglas County District Court and received a sentence of 10 to 12 years imprisonment. On December 7, 2021, the Nebraska Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence.
