4 teen boys allegedly raped Minneapolis girl, 13

A 13-year-old Minneapolis girl was gang-raped by four teenage boys this past weekend at a residence in St. Paul's Dayton's Bluff neighborhood, police said Tuesday.

The boys -- one 16, two 15 and one 13 -- were charged Tuesday in Ramsey County Juvenile Court. Each faces two charges of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and one of committing a crime for the benefit of a gang. Police said they believe the rape may have been part of a initiation into a Hmong gang called the Mafia Gangsters.

A Hmong community leader said the brutal nature of the crime will be a particularly hard blow in her tight-knit cultural community.

"I think the community has a very good sense that this is an individual act, but we are very communal. In a sense, we feel that all children are our children," said Ilean Her, executive director of the Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans.

The girl had been hanging out with the boys and drank with them, police say. But her cooperation ended when they began biting, slapping and punching her, eventually raping her, police spokesman Peter Panos said.

If the rape was part of a gang initiation, it wasn't the girl who was being "jumped in" or initiated into the gang, Panos said. She claimed to already be a member of the Mafia Gangsters, a local Hmong gang, he said. Instead, it's possible it was the 13-year-old boy who was being initiated into the gang, he said.

"For gangs, that's when they try to catch them, right around that age," Panos said. "They're looking to see who they are, trying to find something to belong to, an identity."

Police have had previous contact with at least two of the juvenile suspects, he said.

The suspects, who are in custody, made their first court appearances Tuesday. Motions have been filed to certify the 16-year-old and the two 15-year-olds to stand trial as adults; the first hearing on those motions is scheduled for March 17. A trial for the 13-year-old is scheduled March 20.

Her said that as news of the crime filters out into the Hmong community, there will be "a sense of loss for the victim, and the terrible thing that happened to her and her family, and there's a sense of loss for the boys that are involved.

"Their lives are very much ruined, and they're so young," she said.

'We want her to heal'

The girl and the suspects took the bus from her home in north Minneapolis to an apartment in a beige fourplex in the 400 block of Hopkins Street in St. Paul's Dayton's Bluff neighborhood about 9:45 p.m. Friday. The block has both residential and commercial buildings, with several well-kept single-family homes and a view of the State Capitol to the west.

Police reports differ about what happened over the next few hours, during which the alleged attack occurred. One report said the boys walked the girl to a house in the 400 block of Whitall Street, about 10 blocks away, after the attack, and told her that someone she knew lived there. The boys fled when she approached the house.

Another report said the boys momentarily left the girl alone and she escaped to a stranger's house, who called police. The girl was taken to Regions Hospital. Besides the rape, she was not severely injured.

Late Tuesday, a woman who lives in the apartment where the alleged attack occurred, home to one of the teen suspects, declined to comment.

Her said the council she heads and other groups formed to focus on Hmong youth and crime have been told by law enforcement officials that there has been a decrease in gang activity by Hmong youth in the recent past, but that problems still exist.

"It's so sad what happened to her. Right now we want her to heal so she feels safe in terms of returning to the community."

Staff writer Jim Adams contributed to this report. ppheifer@startribune.com • 612-741-4992 asimons@startribune.com • 612-673-4921