A 15-year-old boy is under arrest in a hit-and-run crash that killed a 70-year-old grandmother last month in St. Paul, police announced Friday.
Phoua Hang’s husband was driving and he or she was a passenger when their vehicle was struck by someone driving a stolen Kia within the Payne-Phalen neighborhood. The motive force and passengers ran away.
After “a lengthy and intense investigation that involved surveillance video, forensic evaluation, and most significantly, information from our St. Paul community,” police arrested the teenager on Tuesday, St. Paul police Sgt. David McCabe said.
Police haven’t said whether the teenager they arrested was the suspected driver or a passenger. The investigation is ongoing and police proceed to ask anyone with information to come back forward.
Hang was a longtime vendor on the St. Paul Farmers’ Market, where she sold her family’s fresh produce for 20 years. Her grandson is Rep. Jay Xiong, DFL-St. Paul. Her daughter and son, Pakou Hang and Janssen Hang, founded the Hmong American Farmers Association.
The crash happened the night of July 17, when Hang’s husband was driving north on Forest Street and the Kia got here from an alley between Cook and Magnolia avenues, police have said.
“Phoua Thao Hang was senselessly and tragically killed,” her family said in a Friday statement. “Today’s developments are a primary – and a very important – step forward within the pursuit of accountability and justice.”
Hang “was the singular most significant person in our lives,” her family said. “Her life, her abiding love for her family, her deep cultural knowledge and farming wisdom (which she open-heartedly shared), her zest and curiosity for all things, her kind and caring nature, and the hundreds of untold stories, blessings, and life lessons she had yet to impart were all stolen from her, and from us, on July 17.”