Police Arrest 6 Suspected Gang Members in Killings of 4 Men at Backyard Party in Fresno

Fresno police said Tuesday they have arrested six suspected gang members in the shooting deaths of four men at a backyard gathering of family and friends that they believed was a rival gang's party.

Gunmen entered the back of a Fresno home through an unlocked gate on Nov. 17, using semiautomatic weapons to open fire on people watching a football game in the backyard. Four people were killed and six were wounded.

Fresno Police Chief Andy Hall said at a news conference that the suspects were all self-admitted members of the Mongolian Boys Society gang who were retaliating against a rival gang called the Asian Crips — which the suspects believed was responsible for killing the brother a member of their gang hours earlier.

One of the people at the house was a former affiliate of the Asian Crips but was not active in the gang, Hall said, though the Mongolian Boys Society believed it was a gang party. Five people left the party before police arrived and authorities are working on identifying them and whether they had gang ties, Hall said.

One of the shooting suspects — Billy Xiong, 25, of Fresno — was arrested on suspicion of mail theft on Dec. 17. Authorities found one of the weapons used in the killing of the four men in his car, Hall said.

Killed were Xy Lee, 23, a popular singer, and Kalaxang Thao, 40, who is survived by two daughters and a pregnant wife, according to a GoFundMe page. Phia Vang, 31, who supported his parents and younger siblings with earnings from his job delivering clinical lab results, was also slain.

The shooting occurred at the home of the fourth victim, Kou Xiong, 38, a gregarious sushi chef who loved hosting parties. Xiong is survived by his wife and young daughter.

Both Vang and Xiong were children when they moved to the U.S. from Thailand as part of refugee relocation efforts. The Hmong, an ethnic minority group from East and Southeast Asia, fought on the side of the U.S. in the Vietnam War; after the war, the U.S. moved them to communities in Minnesota, California and Wisconsin.

In California, Hmong settled in Fresno and the Central Valley, where sponsors hoped they could find work given their background in agriculture.

KQED News' Miranda Leitsinger edited this report.