Teen Suspect Arrested in Random Killing of 34-year-old Woman in Saint Paul
Yuliya Li, in an image shared to Facebook
Authorities say they’ve arrested a 15-year-old male suspect in relation to the apparently random fatal shooting of a 34-year-old woman as she was inside her vehicle in Saint Paul on Feb. 16.
The juvenile was arrested Wednesday afternoon by Minneapolis police officers and is being held at the Hennepin County Jail for 2nd-degree murder.
Saint Paul police announced the suspect’s arrest Wednesday afternoon, saying he was wanted for “other crimes committed in Hennepin County,” though his name and details on those other charges are not yet available.
PREVIOUSLY: Woman Killed in Saint Paul Shooting in Payne-Phalen Neighborhood
The victim—Yuliya Li, 34—was found unconscious and with a gunshot wound to the neck inside her vehicle on the 1000 block of Payne Ave. around 6:45 p.m. on Feb. 16. Li was rushed to the hospital and was in critical condition from multiple gunshot wounds but later died of her injuries.
Police reviewed surveillance footage from a nearby business and found that the suspects were in a grey Ford Taurus that was last seen northbound on Payne Ave. after the shooting, according to initial scanner reports.
Li was a business director for a Vadnais Heights-based company and moved to the United States in 2007 to attend the University of Minnesota, Bring Me The News reported.
Saint Paul Police Chief Todd Axtell said the teen suspect had a violent criminal history.
Axtell thanked the investigators and officers who worked on the case, writing that their “diligence and determination made this arrest possible and took a violent teen off the streets.”
“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 media release.
“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,” Axtell said. “This tragedy was entirely preventable.”
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