Trial for Fatal Drive-by Shooting Underway in Mower County Court

Austin, MN (KROC-AM News)- Jury selection is under way in Mower County Court for  trial that stems from a fatal drive-by shooting. 

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The fatal shooting occurred in Austin in June of 2023. Two men and a woman were hit by gunfire while they were traveling in a vehicle. 

The man driving the vehicle, identified as 25-year-old Gumdel Gilo, was pronounced dead at the scene while the other man and woman were taken to a hospital with gunshot wounds. 

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The vehicle carrying the victims struck a vacant house after the shooting. 

Austin police found and arrested three suspects in the case. Two of the suspects have been convicted and the trial for the third suspect got started on Monday. 

 Trial for Austin Drive-by Shooting Underway in Mower County Court

30-year-old Chan Obang Oman is charged with aiding and abetting first and second-degree murder, two counts of aiding and abetting attempted first-degree murder and one count of aiding and abetting drive-by shooting. 

The criminal complaint in the case says the Austin man, along with Manamany Abella and Jenup Chop, were riding in an SUV that the victims were following to pick something up on the night of June 9, 2023. 

The SUV then pulled up beside the victim’s vehicle when Chop began shooting at the victims, court documents say. 

The charges also say a man on a motorcycle witnessed the crash. He said he followed the SUV after it fled the scene of the alleged shooting at a high rate of speed. 

The man said he cut off his pursuit after the occupants of the SUV fired multiple gunshots at him before entering the eastbound lanes of I-90, the complaint says. 

Abella, who is serving a prison sentence for a weapons violation conviction, pleaded guilty to a charge of aiding an offender-accomplice after the fact for his involvement in the crime in April of 2024.

He’s scheduled to be sentenced in the deadly shooting at the end of the month. 

Jenup pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder and was sentenced in January to more than 37 years in prison.