A 41-year-old Isanti man is accused of abducting a woman at gunpoint outside her Roseville workplace, binding her and sexually assaulting her while threatening to kill her, according to charges.
Pao Yang faces six felony charges: two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, two counts of kidnapping, first-degree aggravated robbery and second-degree assault.
According to the complaint, at about 5:00 p.m. on September 23, 2026, the woman was leaving her workplace in Roseville when Yang, wearing a black mask and gloves, confronted her with a handgun. Yang ordered her to keep her head down and walk across the parking lot toward a wooded area, where he forced her through thick brush, tied her hands and feet and taped her eyes and mouth.
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The woman begged Yang to take her car and let her go, but he threatened to kill her if she screamed.
Yang took her phone, wallet, backpack and lunch bag, covered her with branches and told her that “they” would come for her soon. He left, returned about 15 minutes later and walked her to a vehicle parked nearby. With her hands still bound and her face covered, Yang drove her around for more than an hour, the complaint says.
Yang eventually brought her to a building she believed was a warehouse and tied her again. When he returned, she heard two loud bangs next to her head that she believed were gunshots. Yang smashed glass items around her, threatened to kill her, forced her to undress and sexually assaulted her, according to the complaint.
Yang told her he had photographed her identification and would kill her family if she called police, the complaint says.
At one point Yang put a plastic bag over her head, and she believed he was going to suffocate her.
Yang eventually let her out of the car near the Phalen golf course in Saint Paul and told her not to turn around or he would kill her.
The woman walked to a nearby gas station, where bystanders flagged down officers. Police saw binding marks on her wrists, and she was taken to a hospital for a sexual assault examination, where tape injuries, abrasions and a tender area on her scalp were documented.
Investigators tied Yang to the abduction through store surveillance video, a license plate reader and phone location data, the complaint says, and officers arrested him on September 25. Bail was set at $2.5 million. Yang is charged with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct (one alleging fear of great bodily harm, one alleging he was armed with a dangerous weapon), two counts of kidnapping, first-degree aggravated robbery and second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon.
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Jurisdictional Context
Ramsey County encompasses Saint Paul and is served by the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office. Felony cases are heard in the Second Judicial District at the Ramsey County Courthouse in downtown Saint Paul; Ramsey County Community Corrections operates the Ramsey County Correctional Facility in Maplewood.
