1 dead, 7 hurt in shooting outside concert at Spring Lake Park venue
Updated: Dec. 23, 1:57 p.m.
A 19-year-old St. Paul man is dead and seven other people were hurt following a shootout in the parking lot of a Spring Lake Park restaurant and event center overnight Saturday.
The Anoka County Sheriff’s Office identified the man killed as Chai Yang. Most of the people injured are also from St. Paul: Keng Moua, 19; Chimua Lor, 22; John Thao, 26; Jann Her, 34; Kou Yang, 37 and Lee Vang Lor, 38. Also injured was Ger Yang, 29, of Pine City. Their injuries aren’t life-threatening, according to the sheriff’s office.
Cmdr. Wayne Heath said an event was taking place inside the Dala Thai Restaurant and Banquet Hall when police arrived on the scene shortly after midnight.
The shootings took place in Dala Thai’s parking lot as it hosted “Bigg Monster’s Ugly Sweater Party,” an 18-and-older event featuring several local and national musicians.
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“Right now, it sounds like there was an altercation between a couple different groups and the shooting was a culmination of that,” Heath said in an interview Sunday.
Six of the shooting victims were taken to area hospitals: three to the HCMC in Minneapolis, two to North Memorial Hospital in Robbinsdale and one to St. John’s Hospital in Maplewood.
The sheriff’s office didn’t have information on their conditions as of Sunday afternoon.
No one is in custody, but there’s no ongoing threat to the public, according to the sheriff’s office.
Spring Lake Park police, the Midwest Medical Examiner and the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office are investigating.
“It’s still early in the investigation and we’re trying to piece things together and put together a clear picture of what happened and who was involved,” Heath said.
The sheriff’s office said detectives believe some people nearby took video of the incident, and they’re asking anyone who has a video recording to email it to RS-CID@co.anoka.mn.us. And anonymous crime tip information can be left here.
Correction (Dec. 23, 2019): An earlier version of this story misspelled the last name of John Thao, one of the people injured.