Insurance company won’t pay beneficiaries of man killed near Lincoln months after he shot a man

A lawsuit now in federal court poses a question: Is a life insurance company required to pay out proceeds in the case of a man who died in a suspected gang-related killing and who was accused in a previous killing?

A Canada-based insurance company, International Order of Foresters, has refused to pay on a $100,000 life insurance policy that was taken out on behalf of Goa Dat of Omaha. In turn, Dat’s brother, Det Dat, and his mother, Thokat Kuoth — the beneficiaries of the policy — have filed a lawsuit.

The reason for Foresters’ refusal is unclear. Brent Bloom, an attorney for Det Dat and Kuoth, could not be reached late last week.

Goa Dat had a checkered history before he was shot to death at age 24 while traveling on U.S. 77 in Lincoln on Oct. 30, 2021.

Goa Dat’s friend, Mabior Mabior, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the March 27, 2021, killings of two Sudanese men, LokLok Thok, 27, and Duop Tang Deng, 24, near 24th and Emmet streets in Omaha. Testimony at Mabior’s trial indicated that Mabior and Goa Dat were together at that location when Mabior and Thok got into an argument. Mabior shot Thok during the argument, then chased down Deng and shot him to eliminate a witness.

After Thok collapsed in the street, prosecutors said, Goa Dat walked up to Thok, stood over him and fired into his head.

Seven months passed. About 3 a.m. Oct. 30, 2021, Dat and another man, Felix Yata, were driving on U.S. 77, between Rosa Parks Way and West A Street in south Lincoln. Someone fired into their car, hitting both Dat and Yata. Yata survived. Dat died from his wounds at the hospital a few days later.

Lincoln police have said they think Dat’s killing was gang-related, but the case remains unsolved.

On July 28, 2021, Foresters issued an “accidental death term insurance policy” to Dat in the amount of $100,000, Bloom wrote in the lawsuit.

“Demand was made to (Foresters) to pay the amount of said benefit to the plaintiffs,” the lawsuit said. Foresters “refused and still refuse to pay the amount of said benefit to the plaintiffs.”

Bloom wrote that Goa Dat’s survivors “have fulfilled all requirements and terms of the above stated policy.”

“Dat died in a manner which was covered by the terms of (his) policy,” Bloom wrote.

Dat had survived a shooting several months before he took out the policy. On Nov. 7, 2020, Tip Mut, then 22, shot Dat twice in the lower back after Dat got into an altercation with Mut’s sisters. In the course of shooting Dat, Mut accidentally killed his friend Gabriel Miller, 21. Mut has since been convicted and sentenced to prison.