A single mother-of-two from Minnesota has been shot dead after her sex offender ex-boyfriend allegedly ambushed the victim outside her Saint Paul home – opening fire on her before turning the gun on himself.
The Saint Paul Police Department is investigating the deaths of Bao Yang and Doua Por Lao, both 39, on Saturday as a suspected murder-suicide.
According to Yang’s family, the woman had made multiple complaints about Lao, accusing him of relentless harassment, and she also filed criminal charges against him after he allegedly raped her and shaved her head.
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Bao Yang (left) and her ex-boyfriend Doua Por Lao (right), both 39, were found fatally shot in a suspected murder-suicide in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on Saturday
Police found the pair suffering from gunshot wounds outside Yang’s home on Montana Avenue in Saitn Paul on Saturday morning
A shotgun and a handgun were recovered at the scene of the suspected murder-suicide
But after a brief stint in jail last month, Lao was freed. Less than three weeks after his release on bond, he allegedly returned to Yang’s home and killed her and then himself, reported Twin Cities Pioneer Press.
At around 8.30am on Saturday, police were called to Yang’s home in the 1900 block of Montana Avenue in Saint Paul for a report of a shooting.
When officers arrived, they found Yang and Lao outside of the house, suffering from gunshot wounds.
Lao was pronounced dead at the scene. Yang was taken to Regions Hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries, reported WCCO.
Yang’s 21-year-old son, Vichai Vang, wrote online that his mother worked 2-3 jobs to provide for himself and his 11-year-old brother while pursuing a career as a registered nurse
A shotgun and a handgun were recovered at the scene of the suspected murder-suicide.
Yang was working several jobs to provide for her 21-year-old son, Vichai Vang, and his 11-year-old brother, according to a GoFundMe campaign launched by the young man.
‘All she ever wanted was to raise my little brother in the best life she could give him,’ Vang wrote in the fundraiser’s description. ‘I could see how much stress she carried everyday but still always managed to provide for my brother and I.’
Vang said that in between raising two children and holding down two or three jobs, his mother found the time to go to school to became a registered nurse, which she had accomplished only a few years ago.
‘My mom was a very caring person,’ wrote Yang’s eldest son. ‘She was always smiling and always laughing. She was so full of life.’
It is unclear how and when Yang first crossed paths with Lao, who was a Level 3 registered sex offender stemming from a conviction for second-degree sexual assault of a child in 2003 in Wisconsin. He was released from prison in 2014.
A Saint Paul police spokeswoman is reading a statement to the press at the crime scene
According to a notice that police in Saint Paul released to the public last fall when Lao moved apartments, his sex offender status was related to an incident in which he had held a teenage girl against her will, plied her with alcohol and coerced her into engaging in sexual contact with him.
Over the past 12 months, police were called to Yang’s house 15 times, including twice in March prior to her death. Many of the reports had to do with Lao allegedly harassing the woman.
In August 2019, Yang summoned the police to an area hospital and reported being raped by Lao. She told officers that she had ended their relationship in July of that year because they were ‘incompatible.’
Yang reported that on August 16, Lao had barged into her home, broke her phone to stop her from calling 911, threw her on the couch and raped her.
Following the attack, she said Lao shaved her head after getting the idea from a YouTube video about a man who had done it to a woman as punishment for infidelity.
For the next several months, Yang went back and forth between pursuing and withdrawing charges against Lao.
Then in February of this year, Lao was arrested for allegedly sending sexually explicit photos of Yang to another ex-boyfriend.
Two days later, a judge approved Lao’s release from jail, and he walked free after posting $10,000 bond on March 1.