St. Paul police investigating after woman yells racist threats to Asian families waiting for school bus
A group of Asian American children and their families were targeted with racist threats in St. Paul on Friday.
Tsong Vang, 66, said he was standing at a bus stop in the vicinity of Lake Phalen, helping his 5-year-old grandson get on the bus to preschool, when a young woman driving past in an SUV pointed at him and began yelling racist threats at him.
He saw her yell similar racist threats to other families waiting farther along the bus route. Vang said it made him worry for his daughter’s family and his community’s safety.
“It’s not safe for her family during the morning time when they walk their kids to the bus, and I don’t want something to happen,” Vang said. “We pray for peace for St. Paul, Minnesota.”
Vang said he was especially worried after a gunman killed eight people, many of them Asian women, earlier this week in Atlanta. He said he was concerned something similar could happen to him.
Vang’s daughter Gia Vang is a news anchor at KARE 11 and posted about the incident on social media Friday.
Tsong Vang said he reported the event to law enforcement.
The St. Paul Police Department said they have opened an investigation into the incident.
“We take all reports of bias-motivated crimes seriously and we aggressively investigate,” St. Paul Police Department spokesperson Steve Linders said. “We ask anybody who has been a victim or is concerned to give us a call because we want everybody in our city to not only be safe but to feel safe.”
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