Minnesota officer who fatally shot 65-year-old man armed with a knife will not be charged

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota police officer will not be charged for fatally shooting a 65-year-old man who was armed with a knife.

The offices of the Minnesota Attorney General and the Ramsey County Attorney announced Wednesday that Officer Abdirahmin Dahir’s use of force to kill Yia Xiong in February 2023 was “objectively reasonable to stop the deadly threat” the officer faced.

The shooting happened after officers responded to a report of a man threatening people with a long knife inside a community room. Relatives have said that Xiong struggled to understand orders to drop a traditional Hmong knife because of a language barrier and extreme hearing loss suffered while fighting in the U.S. Secret War in Laos.