Police have arrested a 15-year-old in connection with the hit-and-run death of a 70-year-old woman earlier this summer in St. Paul, Minnesota.
According to KARE 11, Phoua Hang was riding in the car with her husband of 50 years on the evening of July 17 when a stolen Kia slammed into their vehicle. Hang died at the scene. Her husband, who was driving their car, survived.
Witnesses say they saw the stolen Kia driving erratically before the crash. According to FOX 9, the driver and passengers ran from the scene. St. Paul Police announced Friday that they arrested a 15-year-old boy on August 16 in connection with the hit-and-run. The boy was not even old enough to drive.
Hang was born in Sa Luong, Laos in 1952 and fled the country in 1975. She and her husband came to America in 1976. According to CBS News, Hang was an important figure in the St. Paul Hmong community. She helped found the Hmong American Farmers Association in 2011, advocated for a micro-lending program and developed a food hub.
“(She had a) Infectious laugh, beautiful smile, and was a great mom,” Jim Golden, who had known Hang for decades given his role as Market Manager at St. Paul Farmers Market told CBS News. “We had a lot of laughs, there was a language barrier, but that didn’t seem to matter too much to her.”
Hang’s family issued a statement thanking the St. Paul Police Department after news of an arrest broke. They reiterated how much they loved Hang and how much she would be missed.
“As we have expressed before, Phoua Thao Hang was the singular most important person in our lives. 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 thousands of untold stories, blessings, and life lessons she had yet to impart were all stolen from her, and from us, on July 17,” Phoua’s family said in a statement, according to KARE 11.
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