A Kwik Trip employee died Tuesday after he was stabbed at a store in Mankato, Minnesota, the city shared in a news release. Dennis Vosika, a 34-year-old from Mankato, a city about 80 miles southwest of Minneapolis, was found unresponsive at the convenience store when police arrived shortly after 3 a.m. Tuesday, the city said.
Vosika was taken to Mayo Clinic Health System where he died of multiple stab wounds.
Kwik Trip CEO and President Scott Zietlow shared a statement Tuesday that said Vosika’s death was a “devastating loss for all of us, and our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.”
Police used video surveillance to identify 28-year-old Michael Miller as the suspect, the city said. He faces second-degree murder charges. Miller was a known customer, police said, and was easily identified as the suspect, which lead to his arrest.
Zietlow said the safety and well-being of Kwik Trip’s employees are its top priorities, and the company is working closely with law enforcement to understand what happened.
“We are committed to maintaining a secure and supportive workplace for all coworkers. We want to make sure that everyone feels safe and supported during this challenging time. We will get through this as a community, leaning on each other for strength and support,” he said.
Kwik Trip is No. 11 on CSP’s 2024 Top 202 ranking of U.S. convenience-store chains by store count.
Kwik Trip, La Crosse, Wisconsin, has 896 c-stores as of Jan. 1, 2025, in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan and South Dakota.
Convenience stores are no strangers to crime, and grappling with how to keep employees safe is a concern for many.
In response to the surge in crime across the nation and its detrimental effects on small businesses, the House Committee on Small Business held a full committee hearing on Jan. 11 titled Crime on the Rise: How Lawlessness is Impacting Main Street America. Those testifying before the committee included small-business owners, activists and law enforcement representatives, according to the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS).
Several convenience stores have also closed stores due to crime. Stewart’s Shops closed an Albany, New York, store in November 2023 following a surge in theft, robberies and threats of violence that created an unsafe environment for customers and employees, the chain said at the time. Sheetz and Wawa have also struggled with safety and security at their urban locations.
FBI data from January 2023 to 2024 shows that there were 30,983 robberies at convenience stores and service/gas stations, 17,219 aggravated assaults and 458 homicides.
Nearly 13% of all robberies during that time happened at convenience stores or gas stations, while less than 3% of aggravated assaults and homicides took place at c-stores or gas stations, FBI data shows.
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