The family of Yia Xiong, who was shot and killed by St. Paul Police early last year, is suing two officers and the city of St. Paul. 

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi and Attorney General Keith Ellison announced last month there would be no criminal charges against the officers. 

In an exclusive interview, the lawyers representing the family of Yia Xiong told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS they think there’s clear negligence on the civil level. 

Kyle Farrar and Mark Bankston with Farrar & Ball, LLP argue St. Paul police officers acted contrary to their training outlined in the St. Paul Police Department manual. The policies dealt with communication problems, de-escalation, barricaded suspects, time and momentum, force transitions and so on. 

In part, the lawsuit says, “From the 911 calls, SPPD dispatch knew that the individual with a knife was an elderly member of the Hmong community.” It goes on to say that “only a tiny percentage of elderly Hmong in St. Paul can speak any English.” The document says Yia Xiong was 65 years old, partially deaf and understood almost no English. 

SPPD policy requires officers to consider that “there are many reasons a person may be unresponsive, uncooperative or resisting arrest,” such as “a medical condition, mental, physical, or hearing impairment, language barrier, or emotional crisis, and have no criminal intent.”

SPPD policy also requires that “if probable cause exists to make an arrest, an officer should not provide disparate treatment to a person who is disabled in communication.” In such a situation, “the officer should use reasonable means to communicate based on the totality of the circumstances.” 

Bankston says officers did not use reasonable means to communicate.

In response to the lawsuit, a spokesperson for the city of St. Paul told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that “the city is aware of the complaint and will engage in a thorough review before responding to the Court.”

Policies on de-escalation and barricaded suspects were also ignored, according to Farrar. 

Family says Xiong attempted to give birthday money to a child as a Hmong tradition on February 11, 2023. 911 callers told dispatchers an uninvited man entered a private birthday party at a senior living home and was asked to leave. He left but returned with a knife. 

Body camera footage shows Officer Abdirahman Dahir and Noushue Cha telling Xiong to drop the knife. Xiong walks away into his apartment unit. Officers attempt to keep his door open but fail. They then opened the door handle and saw Xiong holding a knife. Xiong was struck five times by gunfire. The entire police encounter lasted 30 seconds. 

“When you have a man who calmly went in his apartment, went inside and officers decide to bust open his door down, scream at him unintelligibly and point assault weapons at his face, he was startled. He was still holding his kitchen knife and that created a fatal encounter,” Bankston said. 

In a report by use-of-force expert Jeff Noble, officers’ lives “were at imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury at the moment when Officer Dahir used deadly force by shooting Mr. Xiong.”

Bankston blames officers for creating the danger. However, Noble’s report states, “Although the officers immediately entered the apartment building, confronted Mr. Xiong, and opened the door to his apartment, they didn’t to create the danger that led to their use of force.” Noble says, “In these circumstances, a reasonable police officer would have made immediate entry into the apartment complex [to] protect the individuals inside.” 

In a written statement, Officer Dahir said, “We could not let the male inside the door due to not knowing who else was in the room and the possibility of the male hurting somebody else in the room.” 

In a letter to Keith Ellison, Bankston says, “Noble excuses the officer’s encounter not based on a justified belief that someone else was in Mr. Xiong’s apartment, and not even a suspicion or a hunch, but on the mere possibility that someone else could be present.” 

SPPD policy states, “Officers should recognize that they may withdraw to a position that is tactically more secure or allows them greater distance in order to consider or deploy a greater variety of force options.” The officers never considered withdrawing to a tactically secure position, according to the lawyers.

“To me it’s senseless, so many things could have been done to prevent it,” said Charles Xiong, Yia Xiong’s nephew.

“He was a father and uncle that would hand down his last dollar to you, and that’s what he did that day,” said Mai Tong Xiong, Yia Xiong’s daughter. “By giving the little kid money, his life was taken that day.”