Friends, family hold protest at East Austin gas station where man was killed

AUSTIN, Texas - Loved ones of a man who was shot and killed at an East Austin gas station gathered Tuesday evening to call for justice.

Friends and family of Marquis Demps, 42, held a protest outside the Shell station on East Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Springdale Road. It was in that parking lot that Demps was shot and killed exactly one month ago.

Police say Demps entered the store in the early morning hours of January 21, and got in an altercation with two workers, showing a knife and trashing the store. But it was after Demps walked back out to the car that police say employee Yaseen Naz shot him several times.

Naz was charged with first-degree murder but earlier this month was released from jail on $250,000 bond—a quarter of the amount originally set. At Tuesday night’s protest, Demps’ loved ones called his release "unjust", pushing back against claims that the shooting was in self-defense, and calling for the family-owned store to be shut down.

"We're just now realizing he's out on bond, on a leg monitor, at home, after doing something so brutal," said Cluren Williams, who organized the protest.

"We want him to go back to jail. We do want something to happen to him for this. This is not what we want," said Marquis Demps’ sister Tiffany Demps. "We know what happened here. The police know what happened here. Otherwise the man wouldn't have been charged. I actually just want justice for my brother.

Tiffany Demps added, "At the end of the day, Black lives matter. My brother's life mattered. And he's gone. He was took from us."

Longtime customers of the store have come to Naz’s defense. Naz has not yet been indicted.

FOX 7 reached out Tuesday to Naz’s brother and his attorney for comment, but have not heard back at the time of the airing of this story.