Charges: Shooters circled St. Paul neighborhood in car before they ‘executed’ victim

A man has been arrested and charged in connection with a deadly shooting earlier this week in St. Paul’s Midway neighborhood.

Court records show Kueth Chuol Ngut, 22, of Minneapolis, is charged with two counts of second-degree murder in the Sept. 17 death of Lul Dak Chak, 32, of Ames, Iowa.

A criminal complaint alleges two men got out of a Subaru Outback in an apartment building parking lot on the 1200 block of University Avenue West and began shooting at Chak and his cousin. The cousin told police the gunmen got out shortly after Chak walked out of the building and that Chak “jumped in front” of her to protect her.

Chak was pronounced dead on the scene. An autopsy indicated he was shot nine times, the complaint states.

Police reviewed surveillance video from the area, which showed the Subaru had been driving around the area for about 20 minutes before the shooting and had moved to different areas of the parking lot. A passenger and driver are seen getting out — the passenger appears to fire nine rounds, while the driver fired from close range before walking right up to Chak’s body on the ground and shooting more rounds.

“From the video it’s apparent that [Chak] was targeted and executed,” the complaint states.

Police ran the South Dakota license plate number on the Subaru and learned it was registered to a woman who had recently moved to an address in south Minneapolis. The woman said her boyfriend, Ngut, had taken her car the night before and had it towed. When showed a surveillance image of a person pushing the Subaru the night of the murder, she said the person looked like Ngut and was wearing a jacket similar to one he owned.

Officers executed a search warrant on the woman’s apartment and found Ngut inside. They recovered a loaded handgun with ammunition that matched with cartridge casings found at the murder scene.

When investigators interview Ngut, he was “hostile, confrontational and dismissive,” the complaint states. He allegedly refused to comply with a search warrant and provide a DNA sample. He is being held in custody “until he complies with the search warrant.”

Court records indicate Ngut has past felony convictions of first-degree aggravated robbery and possessing a firearm without a serial number.

Police have not said whether the second shooter has been arrested.