Warrant: Suspect killed in FBI standoff held gun to woman’s head while leaving home
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Federal agents shot and killed a man Thursday while executing an arrest warrant at a home in north Minneapolis, according to law enforcement officials.
A search warrant provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office identifies Chue Feng Yang, 33, as the subject of the FBI raid near Dupont and Dowling avenues. Agents fatally shot him when he left the house with a gun pointed at a woman’s head.
The search warrant, issued Thursday night, allows officers to look for evidence tying Yang to charges of assault on a federal officer or felon in possession of a firearm.
Federal agents also identified Yang as being involved in a carjacking and police chase in Little Canada on Jan. 30.
A woman who was with him during that chase, 26-year-old Raylean Gurneau, is charged with throwing a puppy from the vehicle. The FBI warrant states Gurneau was in the house with Yang during Thursday’s standoff.
Yang also had unrelated warrants for his arrest in both Hennepin and Ramsey counties.
A team of FBI agents, Hennepin County deputies and Minneapolis police officers went to Yang’s residence to arrest him around 6 a.m. Thursday. Due to his criminal history, witnesses saying that Yang was always armed and the circumstances of the Jan. 30 carjacking, the FBI SWAT team was also on scene, according to court documents.
The warrant states law enforcement officers surrounded the house and called for everyone to come out. Yang and Gurneau stayed inside, officials said.
Agents could see that Yang was armed with a sawed-off shotgun, and Yang said he would shoot agents if they entered his home.
Yang also said he hoped FBI agents brought “body bags” and that he would detonate bombs if agents tried to enter the home.
Later, he began livestreaming from inside the home, and agents could see the sawed-off shotgun and that Gurneau had a handgun.
For over six hours, a hostage negotiator tried to convince Yang to surrender peacefully, according to the warrant.
Around 12:15 p.m., Yang and Gurneau came out of the home, tied together at their torsos. Yang had his sawed-off shotgun pointed at Gurneau’s head, authorities said.
FBI agents shot Yang to try and save the woman, according to the warrant. He was pronounced deceased at the hospital. Gurneau was treated for an apparent fentanyl overdose.
Law enforcement officers believe that the woman’s handgun and potentially the bombs Yang alluded to are still in the home.
Community members gathered at the scene in the aftermath of the shooting.
“I’m sad for the family and I’m sad for the people that are involved,” said Tiffany Burns, who lives nearby in the neighborhood.
Minneapolis police fatally shot her brother Jamar Clark in 2015.
“For me, it’s déjà vu all over again,” said Burns. “I would hope that things would get resolved in a matter where we’re not killing people in the process of issuing warrants or arresting. We can find ways to get people in custody or get people arrested without having to use deadly force.”
There were calls for body camera footage to be released in the hours that followed the deadly encounter. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara confirmed his officers were using body cameras during the incident but said, however, they may have been too far from the shooting to capture what happened. MPD officers were not involved in the use of force, according to multiple officials.
“It’s another officer-involved shooting,” said Jonathan Mason, a Minneapolis resident and activist. “Body camera is going to be vital.”
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara and Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt spoke briefly Thursday afternoon near the scene.
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O’Hara and Witt said no Minneapolis police officers or Hennepin County deputies fired their firearms. Upon further review, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office stated that it learned a deputy fired a less-lethal round.
The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office released a statement Thursday night which said, in part:
This AIS is being investigated by federal law enforcement as a federal law enforcement AIS.
The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and the Minneapolis Police Department are committed to supporting the federal investigation into this AIS.
“The FBI takes all shooting incidents involving our agents or task force members seriously. In accordance with FBI policy, the shooting incident is under investigation by the FBI’s Inspection Division,” the agency said in a statement.
One question left to answer is whether the FBI agents involved were wearing body cameras. FBI officials wouldn’t say Thursday whether there was footage of the shooting.
In 2021, the Department of Justice began rolling out body-worn cameras to its federal law enforcement personnel. An FBI policy, which went into effect in the summer of 2022, says agents are required to wear body-worn cameras during pre-planned arrests and searches. The policy states that after an agent-involved shooting or use of force incident, federal investigators are required to review the video. A key point in that policy allows for the FBI to release the video publically
Chief O’Hara confirmed the Minneapolis police officers at the scene were wearing body cameras but said the department would only release the video if it contained relevant information.
This is a developing story. 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS will continue to update it as more information becomes available.