Sioux Falls, SD: Murder-suicide victim had dated shooter

Nyamai Biliu, the victim in Tuesday night's
murder- suicide in northwestern Sioux
Falls, probably was shot to death because
she spurned the advances of her killer, her
father said.

Kun Garbang said Simon Maluil - the 35-
year-old man who police say shot Biliu to
death with a .45-caliber handgun before
turning the gun on himself - was a distant
cousin.

Added to the family's grief, then, is a sour
note of shock that Maluil, whom Garbang
described as a quiet, polite young man,
would be capable of such violence.

"If you compare what he did with the way
we see him ..."

Biliu leaves behind two girls, Violla, 5, and
Nana, 3, who will stay with their
grandmother for now.

"She is the best child I ever had," Garbang
said of his third-eldest. "No enemies. Very
smart."

Police released more details about the
shooting Wednesday, including that Maluil
and Biliu had dated in the past. A 1-year-
old child whom Biliu had been babysitting
was in an upstairs bedroom when Maluil
shot Biliu to death outside, then returned to
the downstairs living room and shot
himself, Capt. Greg Vandekamp said. The
child was unharmed.

Biliu, shot three times, was dead when
police arrived, he said.

Vandekamp said he was not aware of any
previous domestic disturbance calls at the
home. A state criminal history search for
Maluil returned no records.

Biliu graduated from Washington High
School and was taking classes at Colorado
Technical University in hopes of becoming a
police officer. A university registrar
confirmed her attendance but said she was
not enrolled at the time of her death.

The Argus Leader interviewed Biliu when
she was a contestant in the 2010 Miss
Sudan America pageant, which she called
"an opportunity that people back home
don't have.

"I want people to know, no matter how old
they are, you shouldn't give up on your
dreams," she said.

Garbang, fleeing war in Sudan, brought his
wife and seven children to the United States
in 2001 under a United Nations refugee
program. Two of his sons subsequently
joined the Marines.


They lived in Chicago for a month but
moved to Sioux Falls because they had
relatives here and because they thought it
would be safer, Garbang said.

"Sioux Falls seemed to be quieter than
Chicago," he said.

Garbang said his family wants to know how
Maluil got a gun in the first place, decrying
the ease with which people are able to
obtain lethal weapons.

"Did he buy it? Did he steal it? Who is
licensing him to have that gun?" he said.
"Where did he get it? That gun is now with
the police, and we want to know where he
bought it."

The shooting call came in about 20 minutes
after a motorcycle collided with a woman w
alking her dog, killing both pet and
owner. Although the patrol division had to
scramble to cover both scenes, no
additional officers had to be called in, Chief
Doug Barthel said.

"There's no question that when you have
two of these back to back, it's going to
strain those resources," he said.

Had the units on duty been required to
cover other serious calls, officers from the
next shift could have come on earlier. But
"there were still adequate resources to
answer 911 calls," he said.

"We certainly could staff for those times,
but 99 percent of the time, we wouldn't
need those resources out there, and it
would be wasteful," he said.

Reporter Sarah Reinecke contributed to this
report. Reach Cody Winchester at 331-
2320.