The Associated Press
LINO LAKES, Minn. — Authorities were searching Monday for an inmate who walked away from the minimum security unit at the state prison in Lino Lakes.
Jun William Vang, 27, was a gang member and driver of a car involved in an attempted drive-by killing in Maplewood in 1999. He was scheduled to be released on parole in February.
Vang was 19 when he was sentenced to 13 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted murder for the benefit of a gang. He was driving his 17-year-old cousin, Kevin Vang, who leaned out the car window and fired into the busy parking lot of a Cub Foods supermarket. He was targeting three rival gang members, authorities said at the time, but nobody was injured.
Jun William Vang had been under minimum custody at Lino Lakes since January. Authorities said he left the minimum security unit, which is outside the prison’s secure perimeter, between the 1:45 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. prisoner counts.
He was described as 5 feet, 4 inches tall, 145 pounds, Asian, brown eyes, black hair, with numerous tattoos on his chest and arms and a small tattoo on his neck. Anyone with information about his whereabouts was asked to call 911 or the Minnesota Department of Corrections’ Fugitive Tip Line at (651) 603-0026.