The following is based on your complainant’s review of the reports of other officers and your complainant’s own investigation: On the morning of October 31, 2025, St. Paul Police received a report of domestic assault that had occurred the prior day. CV ([DOB REDACTED]) told officers that the prior morning, she had visited a friend at a homelessness encampment at Warner and Fish Hatchery Rds., St. Paul, Ramsey County. She said that she was aware that her ex-boyfriend, the defendant, KAO LEE ([DOB REDACTED]), stays at the encampment as well.
CV continued that as she walked around, seeking her friend, the defendant approached and asked her to come to her tent. She said that when she declined, he pulled a black handgun from his waistband. She said that as he pulled the slide back, the magazine fell out, and he had to reload it. She said that he grabbed her shirt, held the handgun at her side, and began to walk her toward a tent. She said that he told her to put both hands in the air and pray her for children and then threatened to kill her.
She said that she cried and screamed, and he eventually released her. She said that she was shocked and traumatized and unable to report the incident at the time. A city staffer who works with homelessness encampments confirmed to officers that CV had been very distraught on October 30; staffer had since encouraged her to report the incident to police. A second city staffer told an investigator that on the morning of October 30, she and the first staffer had encountered CV, who was crying and appeared very shaken, such that CV could barely speak.
She said that CV reported having been approached by the defendant, who pulled a gun out, grabbed her jacket, and walked her toward a tent while threatening to kill her. She said that CV reported having seen the gun’s magazine. The next business day (November 3), CV filed a petition for an order for protection. In a sworn affidavit accompanying the petition, she reiterated her prior account (language as in the affidavit): “Kao put his gun point to me and he said he let me thinking of my children before he kills me.
He load magazine to show me that it’s a real gun. Then he told me to go to the other tent. I did go then he said if I run then he kills me. At that time I was crying.” In a follow up interview with an investigator, CV reiterated her statements yet again. She said that during the incident, she approached the city staffers, causing the defendant to leave. Past Abuse CV previously obtained orders for protection against the defendant in February 2022 and in January 2025; the latter order is in force until 2027 but was served by publication only (62-DA-FA-22-85, 62-DA-FA-24- 1126). In sworn affidavits accompanying CV’s petitions for these orders, she described multiple incidents of harassment and abuse by the defendant against her.
