FBI kills man in Minneapolis following standoff
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Updated April 28, 2:50 p.m. | Posted April 27, 4:57 p.m.
An FBI agent shot and killed a man in Minneapolis on Thursday following an hourslong standoff after agents tried to serve an arrest warrant.
The FBI said in a statement that the subject of the warrant barricaded himself inside a house then later emerged armed. An FBI agent shot and killed the man, identified in federal court documents as Chue Feng Yang.
Those court filings indicated Yang, 33, was being sought in connection with a January stolen vehicle chase where a puppy was thrown out of a car window during the police pursuit, and was also the subject of other arrest warrants.
A woman who was in the house during the Thursday standoff — and who emerged from the home tied to Yang, according to the court documents — was taken to the hospital for treatment of what authorities said was an “apparent fentanyl overdose.”
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She was identified as Raylean Gurneau, 26, who’d been jailed previously on an outstanding felony warrant tied to the January vehicle theft. Ramsey County prosecutors charged her earlier this month with making a fictitious 911 call during the stolen vehicle pursuit for allegedly falsely reporting a carjacking to throw off police.
She was also charged with animal cruelty, though she denied throwing the dog from the truck.
On the scene Thursday afternoon, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told reporters that the confrontation started around 5 a.m. when the FBI arrived at a house near Dupont Avenue North and Dowling Avenue North with an arrest warrant.
“I can confirm that there were no Minneapolis police officers involved in any use of force incident here today, but the Minneapolis police was present on the periphery assisting [and] controlling the scene,” O’Hara said.
The suspect, O’Hara added, livestreamed himself while barricaded in the house. O’Hara said social media posts showed the suspect — later identified as Yang — was armed during the standoff.
A Facebook livestream viewed by MPR News — which a federal search warrant issued Thursday night confirmed was posted during the standoff by Yang — showed Yang and Gurneau with what appeared to be at least two firearms in the home, a handgun and what the warrant described as a sawed-off shotgun.
The video showed Yang tying himself to Gurneau carrying a handgun, then shuffling out of the house.
It wasn’t clear on the video what the situation was outside at the time the two left the home and encountered law enforcement. The federal search warrant alleges Yang was holding the shotgun pointed at Gurneau’s head.
“FBI agents determined that Yang posed an immediate threat to (the woman’s) life, and that lethal force was necessary to protect and preserve (the woman’s) life,” the federal search warrant states.
Authorities sought the warrant to further search the home following the fatal shooting.
Several other law enforcement agencies were on the scene Thursday, including the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office. The sheriff’s office issued a statement Thursday night that said one of its deputies had “discharged a less lethal launcher during the incident.”
The statement said federal officials were handling the investigation into the shooting, and that “the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and the Minneapolis Police Department are committed to supporting the federal investigation.”
The FBI said its inspection division will investigate the shooting.
Neighbors and community members who gathered at the scene included Tiffany Burns, the sister of Jamar Clark, who was killed by Minneapolis police in 2015. “It's unsettling,” she said. “It makes your nerves get a little uneasy. I know it's a bad situation when you see something like that.”
