BY STEVE SCOTT
Twin Cities Tibetans on Saturday night prayed for a slain 21-year-old in their community, remembered a Cambodian friend also fatally shot and expressed their dismay at gun violence.
Columbia Heights police said the pair was killed in a gang mix-up Thursday night at a pool hall.
Members of a Hmong gang apparently confused the victims with their rivals, police said.
“I don’t know of any member of our community who owns a gun,” said Tsewang Ngodup, president of the Tibetan American Foundation of Minnesota.
Several dozen members of the Tibetan community gathered Saturday night at their St. Paul community center to pray for the victims.
Thursday’s gunfire killed Tashi Jagottsang of St. Anthony, as well as Bunsean Lieng, a 19-year-old of Cambodian descent from Minneapolis.
Jagottsang’s shooting rang out in the 1,300-member Tibetan community in the Twin Cities and devastated his family.
“He was far better than me, and I’m not just saying that,” said his brother, Tenzin Jagottsang, 23, who believes he will now have to support his mother, Yangchen Dolker, and his older sister.
Tashi Jagottsang had worked a summer job in Boston and sent his earnings back for his family. Their father died several years ago.
The shootings cast a pall over the Tibetan New Year, which begins Wednesday.
A St. Paul community celebration next Saturday has been canceled, Ngodup said, although a Tibetan festival will go on at the Mall of America from Wednesday through Feb. 24.
“Even if we want to have a happy new year, we’re not that happy inside,” said Tenzin Ngawang, 26, at the prayer service.
Six men and women believed to be members of a Hmong gang were charged in the shootings, which also left four Tibetan men injured.
Tensions apparently escalated when the suspects approached the Tibetan men asking for their gang affiliation, Anoka County authorities said.
