Two juveniles with alleged gang ties face felony charges in connection with the baseball-bat beating of a couple at St. Paul's Lake Phalen Monday night.
But police spokesman Peter Panos said Wednesday that investigators are leaning toward "no" on the question of whether the suspects also may have been involved in a more brutal baseball-bat attack early Friday that also occurred at the south end of Lake Phalen.
"We're still actively looking for the three suspects in Friday morning's beating," he said.
Monday night's attack occurred about the same time a vigil was being held for Friday's victim, a 49-year-old woman identified only as Tammie.
Charges made public in a Ramsey County juvenile court petition Wednesday say that a married couple had been walking around the lake Monday when they were approached by four blue-clad Asian males chasing a lone Asian male dressed in red.
The four males suddenly stopped, and then asked the 17-year-old husband: "Who you bang with?" the petition said. "Are you 'Blood?' "
Despite the husband's claims that he was not a gang member, the petition said, two of the blue-clad males took swings at him with their fists, one striking him in the face. The husband then realized that up to 20 Asian males were surrounding the couple.
When passersby said police had been called, all but two males ran. Wang Moua Vue, also known as Bee Vue, 16, of Brooklyn Park, who stayed behind, had a bat, the petition said. He allegedly struck the husband in the left elbow and upper left side of his back. When the victim's 18-year-old wife intervened, Vue is alleged to have hit her on the head and an upper thigh.
