Relatives of a man who was fatally shot by St. Paul police argued Saturday that the 65-year-old struggled to understand orders to drop a traditional Hmong knife because of a language barrier and extreme hearing loss. The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports that more than 20 relatives of Yia Xiong gathered Saturday in the city to mourn his death and ask for justice. Through tears, his family spoke of a man who had lost his hearing while fighting in the U.S. Secret War in Laos. His younger brother, Wallor Xiong, said Yia Xiong couldn’t hear anything, even when people spoke in his native Hmong language, unless someone was close by and yelling at him.
