Prosecutors say Gyaw Way lured a man and his teenage son to a home on the East Side, then shot the boy while blaming the family for a fire that authorities had already ruled accidental.
ST. PAUL, Minn. — A St. Paul man who lost his son in a December house fire is accused of shooting a 17-year-old boy in the chest after luring the teen and his father to a home on the city’s East Side on April 7, according to a criminal complaint.
The case drew attention because prosecutors say the shooting was fueled by a grievance tied to a separate tragedy that investigators had already classified as accidental. Gyaw Way, 61, is charged with first-degree assault causing great bodily harm. Court records say he believed, without any public criminal finding to support it, that the teen’s father had something to do with the fire that killed one of Way’s sons last winter. The wounded boy is expected to survive, but the allegations turned a private loss into a public case of suspected retaliation, with a second criminal case filed against one of Way’s sons after police said he hid the gun.
According to the complaint, St. Paul police were sent to the 1500 block of Hoyt Avenue East at about 3:45 p.m. on April 7 for a shooting. Officers found the 17-year-old in the driver’s seat of an Acura with a gunshot wound to the chest and an exit wound to the back. The complaint says the bullet damaged his liver and lung and broke ribs, leaving him with life-threatening injuries. Local reports said he is expected to survive but would need to remain hospitalized for at least two weeks. The teen told officers he had been shot by an “old guy” he did not know. Investigators say the father, who was in the vehicle with his son, had come to the house after Way called and said he wanted to repay money he had borrowed for a trip to Thailand. The son drove his father there. Prosecutors say Way then walked outside, got into the car with them and fired.
Witness statements in the complaint describe the shooting as sudden and close-range. People inside the house told police they heard a gunshot soon after Way entered the car. One witness said Way’s adult son followed him outside and then asked his father what was wrong with him after the shot was fired. Prosecutors say that son took the gun away and ran back into the house with it. The complaint says Way then returned inside, lay down on a couch and appeared intoxicated. Investigators wrote that he wondered why anyone had called police and said he did not care that he was going to jail. When officers arrested him, the complaint says, he spoke mostly in Karen but also said a few words in English, including “sorry,” “baby die” and “no accident.” The teen’s father, who police said has an amputated leg, was unable to quickly render help to his son inside the car. The complaint also says the wounded boy rejected an account from Way’s son that there had been a struggle over the gun before the shot went off.
The motive described by prosecutors reaches back to a house fire in December on Cook Avenue East. That fire killed one of Way’s sons and displaced other people in the home. Fire officials initially said a space heater had been found near the area where the fire started, and local reporting later said investigators determined the fire was accidental. One report said a pillow near the heater had caught fire. Another later account, citing the St. Paul Pioneer Press, said the blaze likely began when a space heater ignited bedding. In the shooting complaint, witnesses told police that Way held a grudge against the teen’s father because, “for some reason,” he believed the man had been involved in the fire. Public reporting reviewed as of April 15 showed no criminal charge tied to that blaze and no official finding that the teen’s father had any role in it. The complaint also says Way was overseas when the December fire happened, a detail that underscores how the accusation described by prosecutors appears to have grown after the fact, not from any public finding by fire investigators.
The court case now moves on two tracks. The first is the assault prosecution against Way, filed in Ramsey County on April 9. He is charged with one felony count of first-degree assault causing great bodily harm. Public reports reviewed by April 15 did not show a plea entered on the charge, and attorney information was not immediately available in the reports. The second case involves Pah Ker Say, 26, who was separately charged in Ramsey County with aiding an offender, accused of hiding the gun after the shooting. According to the complaint in Way’s case, that son first denied being outside at the time of the shooting, then changed his story after police said surveillance video showed him near the car. He later told investigators he took the gun from his father and hid it in a bag in the basement so his father would not shoot anyone else, but prosecutors say he did not tell police where the weapon was when officers first arrived. As of April 15, the next public milestones are expected to be court appearances in Ramsey County and any further charging decisions if prosecutors add counts tied to the weapon or the aftermath.
The case has left two families tied together by fire, injury and suspicion. The boy who was shot is not named in public coverage because he is a minor, and the complaint paints him less as a participant in a dispute than as the person who absorbed it. His father told police that Way had once been his caretaker, according to later reports based on the same court records, a detail that adds another layer to an already tangled relationship. The complaint itself does not explain why Way came to blame the man for the fire, only that witnesses told investigators he did. That gap remains one of the central unknowns in the case. So does the question of whether prosecutors will allege planning beyond what is already in the complaint, which says Way called the father earlier that day to bring him to the house on the promise of repayment. For now, the public record shows a teenager badly hurt, a grieving father in jail and a second defendant charged after police said the gun was hidden instead of handed over.
As of April 15, the boy was expected to survive, Way remained charged with first-degree assault and the separate aiding case against his son had also been filed. The next developments are likely to come through Ramsey County court hearings and any fuller release of the evidence gathered by St. Paul police.
Author note: Last updated April 15, 2026.