Teh One Who Knocks
02-24-2022, 12:12 PM
By MARA H. GOTTFRIED | Pioneer Press
https://i.imgur.com/3HJxx3V.png
A 15-year-old boy is under arrest in the random, fatal shooting of a 34-year-old businesswoman in her vehicle in St. Paul last week, police announced Tuesday.
Julia (Yuliya) Li was driving in the Payne-Phalen area “when the suspect opened fire, taking her life,” Steve Linders, a police spokesman, said Tuesday. “She was just going about her business when all of a sudden she was shot.”
Police responded to the 1000 block of Payne Avenue about 6:45 p.m. last Wednesday. Paramedics took Li, of St. Paul, to Regions Hospital and she died a short time later.
Minneapolis police officers arrested the 15-year-old on Tuesday afternoon in Minneapolis and he was being held in Hennepin County on suspicion of second-degree murder and other crimes allegedly committed in Hennepin County, according to St. Paul police.
He is charged in Ramsey County with murder and a county attorney’s spokesman said his office filed a motion to have the teen certified to stand trial as an adult.
‘TRAGIC, SENSELESS VIOLENCE’
Li joined H.B. Fuller, a publicly traded Fortune 1000 company headquartered in Vadnais Heights, in a marketing role in July of 2017. She most recently worked as a global business director and also led the company’s Amazon business project.
“This tragic, senseless violence brought an end to the life of a bright, well-respected, committed, hard-working professional who will be greatly missed by everyone who knew her,” said H.B. Fuller President and CEO Jim Owens in statement.
“It is even more gut-wrenching to learn that the young suspect had committed other violent crimes but had been released,” Owens’ statement continued. “Our mayors, government officials and judicial officials need to create a system that does not allow young criminals to terrorize our community. Had they done a better job, Julia would be alive today.”
The suspect has an “extensive and violent criminal history,” Linders said. Details weren’t publicly available Tuesday night.
Li was originally from Kazakhstan in central Asia and moved to the U.S. in 2007 to study at the University of Minnesota, where she graduated with her bachelor’s degree in economics and global studies, according to Kimberlee Sinclair, H.B. Fuller’s senior director of corporate communications.
She left the Twin Cities to work in brand management and marketing for GE Transportation and Procter & Gamble before returning to St. Paul in 2016 to earn her master of business administration from the University of St. Thomas and then began working at H.B. Fuller.
Li is survived by her husband, parents and sister.
POLICE CHIEF: TEEN WASN’T HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR PREVIOUS CRIMES
Police Chief Todd Axtell said investigators, working with Minneapolis police, showed “diligence and determination” in arresting the teen.
“Sadly, this is yet another example of how our system has failed to put victims first, failed to help a young person going down a dangerous and destructive path, and failed our entire community,” Axtell said in a statement.
“If every spoke in the criminal justice wheel had worked to hold this teen accountable for previous crimes, Ms. Li would be here, the suspect would have received help and consequences to right his course, and our city would not have suffered the trauma of echoing gunshots,” he continued.
Axtell said he spoke with Li’s husband on Tuesday night to inform him the person responsible for his wife’s death was in custody.
“I told him that my heart breaks for his entire family,” Axtell wrote. “This tragedy was entirely preventable.”
https://i.imgur.com/3HJxx3V.png
A 15-year-old boy is under arrest in the random, fatal shooting of a 34-year-old businesswoman in her vehicle in St. Paul last week, police announced Tuesday.
Julia (Yuliya) Li was driving in the Payne-Phalen area “when the suspect opened fire, taking her life,” Steve Linders, a police spokesman, said Tuesday. “She was just going about her business when all of a sudden she was shot.”
Police responded to the 1000 block of Payne Avenue about 6:45 p.m. last Wednesday. Paramedics took Li, of St. Paul, to Regions Hospital and she died a short time later.
Minneapolis police officers arrested the 15-year-old on Tuesday afternoon in Minneapolis and he was being held in Hennepin County on suspicion of second-degree murder and other crimes allegedly committed in Hennepin County, according to St. Paul police.
He is charged in Ramsey County with murder and a county attorney’s spokesman said his office filed a motion to have the teen certified to stand trial as an adult.
‘TRAGIC, SENSELESS VIOLENCE’
Li joined H.B. Fuller, a publicly traded Fortune 1000 company headquartered in Vadnais Heights, in a marketing role in July of 2017. She most recently worked as a global business director and also led the company’s Amazon business project.
“This tragic, senseless violence brought an end to the life of a bright, well-respected, committed, hard-working professional who will be greatly missed by everyone who knew her,” said H.B. Fuller President and CEO Jim Owens in statement.
“It is even more gut-wrenching to learn that the young suspect had committed other violent crimes but had been released,” Owens’ statement continued. “Our mayors, government officials and judicial officials need to create a system that does not allow young criminals to terrorize our community. Had they done a better job, Julia would be alive today.”
The suspect has an “extensive and violent criminal history,” Linders said. Details weren’t publicly available Tuesday night.
Li was originally from Kazakhstan in central Asia and moved to the U.S. in 2007 to study at the University of Minnesota, where she graduated with her bachelor’s degree in economics and global studies, according to Kimberlee Sinclair, H.B. Fuller’s senior director of corporate communications.
She left the Twin Cities to work in brand management and marketing for GE Transportation and Procter & Gamble before returning to St. Paul in 2016 to earn her master of business administration from the University of St. Thomas and then began working at H.B. Fuller.
Li is survived by her husband, parents and sister.
POLICE CHIEF: TEEN WASN’T HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR PREVIOUS CRIMES
Police Chief Todd Axtell said investigators, working with Minneapolis police, showed “diligence and determination” in arresting the teen.
“Sadly, this is yet another example of how our system has failed to put victims first, failed to help a young person going down a dangerous and destructive path, and failed our entire community,” Axtell said in a statement.
“If every spoke in the criminal justice wheel had worked to hold this teen accountable for previous crimes, Ms. Li would be here, the suspect would have received help and consequences to right his course, and our city would not have suffered the trauma of echoing gunshots,” he continued.
Axtell said he spoke with Li’s husband on Tuesday night to inform him the person responsible for his wife’s death was in custody.
“I told him that my heart breaks for his entire family,” Axtell wrote. “This tragedy was entirely preventable.”