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Crime, Law and Justice
Matt Sepic
Minneapolis

Authorities identify St. Paul man killed by police

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The Ramsey County Medical Examiner on Wednesday identified the man shot by a St. Paul police officer on Saturday as 65-year-old Yia Xiong.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said in a statement that Officer Abdirahman Dahir fired his department-issued rifle at Xiong after he allegedly ignored commands to drop a large knife.

Police said previously that officers responded to the Winslow Commons apartments on Western Ave S. near W. 7th St. just before 5 p.m on Saturday. The complex’s apartments are for people who are 62 and older or disabled.

A 911 caller reported that a man who’d been kicked out of a party in the community room had returned and was threatening people with a knife.

According to the BCA, residents directed Dahir and Officer Noushue Cha to a hallway near Xiong’s apartment, where the officers told him to drop his knife, but “Xiong did not respond.”

When he went into his apartment, the officers kicked the door to keep it from closing and ordered Xiong to come out. After the officers retreated down a short hallway, Xiong allegedly stepped out with the knife.

Investigators say Cha fired a Taser. The BCA statement does not say which officer may have fired first, only that “both officers then fired their respective weapons.”

In a search warrant for Xiong’s apartment unsealed this week, BCA Special Agent Detsouk Teip Vixayvong writes that “the subject came at officers with the knife,” but the BCA’s statement does not say whether Xiong advanced toward the officers.

BCA investigators recovered a “16-inch traditional Hmong knife” at the scene. The search warrant says they also recovered five discharged .223 caliber cartridge casings as well as a Taser.

The BCA says the officers each have one year of law enforcement experience and both were wearing body cameras “that captured portions of the incident.”