A 32-year-old man “was targeted and executed” when he was shot behind a St. Paul apartment building, according to murder charges filed Friday.
The charges in the death of Lul Dak Chak, of Ames, Iowa, don’t give a motive, but say surveillance video made it apparent that he was targeted.
Police tracked down one of the suspected shooters after officers saw a vehicle run a red light by the department’s Western District station, just after the shooting on Tuesday.
A Subaru Outback went through a red light on Hamline Avenue and officers in a marked squad near Hamline and St. Anthony avenues followed. They turned on the squad’s emergency lights and tried to pull it over, but the vehicle sped away and they lost sight of it after the pursuit was called off.
Officers were called at 12:20 a.m. about a shooting half a mile from where they initially saw the Subaru.
2 shooters in parking lot
Chak was face down in an apartment parking lot at University Avenue and Griggs Street in the Lexington-Hamline neighborhood. He’d been shot in his upper torso, neck and face, and St. Paul Fire Department medics pronounced him dead at the scene. There was a cellphone and a broken necklace by his body.
Police found 10 .40-caliber casings and nine 9mm casings in the parking lot around Chak’s body.
A woman who said Chak was her cousin reported they’d gone out bowling with a group for a birthday party before returning to the apartment building. She went outside to smoke and Chak came out the back of the building saying he was going to purchase some drugs, according to the criminal complaint.
The woman saw a Subaru in the parking lot, and a male exited the front passenger door “and immediately began shooting,” she reported. She said her cousin jumped in front of her to protect her.
Video surveillance from the parking lot showed Chak walked into the parking lot, and the front seat passenger and driver exited the Subaru at the same time. Both shot Chak and, after the initial shooting, the driver got within 1-2 feet of Chak and fired more rounds into his body. They got back into the Subaru and left.
Surveillance video showed the Subaru driving in the area for about 20 minutes before the shooting, and it moved to various locations in the parking lot.
Vehicle found
The officers who had tried to pull a Subaru over realized it was possibly involved in the shooting. Investigators identified the owner as a woman who lives in Minneapolis, and they found the vehicle parked in her apartment building’s secured underground garage. Surveillance video showed a man got into the Subaru in the garage at 8:37 p.m. Monday and the vehicle returned on a tow truck at 2:45 a.m. Tuesday.
The tow truck company said a man called to have it towed from the University of Minnesota campus early Tuesday. Surveillance video showed the Subaru stopped mid-block and two people emerged.
On Wednesday, police took the Subaru’s owner into custody. She said only she and her boyfriend, Kueth Chuol Ngut, 22, drive the vehicle.
Ngut told his girlfriend he couldn’t find the vehicle when he left his brother’s place, but walked around a couple of blocks and located it. It wasn’t working, so he had it towed, he told her. He also “said something to her about the license plate falling off,” according to the complaint.
Police showed the woman surveillance video from where the vehicle was towed and it showed the Subaru’s front license plate was still attached, “which meant Ngut had lied to her about the missing plates,” the complaint said.
Past convictions
Investigators told her they’d found a gun in her apartment, where Ngut also lived. She said she’d never seen him with a gun. “Investigators reminded (the woman) that she said she met Ngut when he was in prison on other gun charges,” according to the complaint.
Officers found a 9mm handgun in the apartment and a headstamp matched a casing found at the murder scene.
After Ngut’s arrest, investigators tried to interview him, but he was “confrontational and dismissive,” the complaint said. He wouldn’t comply with a search warrant to collect a DNA sample.
The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office charged Ngut with two counts of aiding and abetting murder. Police have only announced Ngut’s arrest and said they continue to investigate.
Prosecutors are asking that Ngut be held without bail until he complies with the search warrant and provides a DNA sample.
Ngut has past convictions for first-degree aggravated robbery and possession of a firearm without a serial number.
An attorney for Ngut wasn’t immediately listed in the court file.
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