Man charged after St. Paul shooting, crash that left 1 dead, suspect's girlfriend injured
St. Paul police are investigating a shooting at J and P Trading, Inc. (FOX 9)
ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office charged a 28-year-old man in connection to a deadly shooting and subsequent crash in St. Paul, Minnesota Thursday night that left one man dead and the suspect’s girlfriend injured.
Chee Kong Yang of St. Paul is charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Antonio Espana-Estrada, 37, of Minneapolis.
According to the charges, Espana-Estrada was leaving working around 5:30 p.m. and was walking across the parking lot of J & P Trading on State Street when Yang shot him.
Yang and his girlfriend had been inside a minivan in the parking lot. The girlfriend had reportedly tried to keep Yang from getting out of the van, but he got out, ran up to Espana-Estrada and shot him in the torso. He started to run back towards the van, then turned around and ran back to shoot the victim several more times while he was on the ground.
Yang then ran back to the minivan, got into the driver’s seat and drove out of the parking lot.
The charges do not mention a motive for the shooting.
A short time later, officers responded to the intersection of Sycamore Street East and Jackson Street where they found an injured woman in the street. They also found a minivan that had been driven through the fence at Oakland Cemetery and been abandoned.
St. Paul police are investigating the scene of a reported assault and van crash at Jackson and Sycamore. Police are looking into the possibility that the incident is related to an earlier shooting. (FOX 9)
A passerby called police after seeing Yang running from the cemetery and directed officers to his location. He was taken into custody. Both Yang and his girlfriend were taken to Regions Hospital for medical assistance.