More than a year after it vanished from Phalen Regional Park, the stolen bronze bust of Olympic gymnast Suni Lee has turned up intact — recovered by St. Paul police officers who were responding to a shots-fired call early Friday morning, roughly two miles from where the statue once stood. A man has been arrested in connection with the theft, though no one has been arrested for the gunfire that led officers there in the first place.
According to 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS, callers reported gunshots near Forest Street and Sims Avenue, and officers arriving on scene found spent rifle casings outside a multi-unit home. After making several announcements, they watched multiple people come outside before conducting a protective sweep of the residence. Inside, they discovered not only the missing statue but also multiple guns and ammunition, per the station's report.
St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry said the statue was recovered as a direct result of officers' response to the shots-fired call, and that thieves had stolen it from the community last year. As reported by CBS News, the bronze bust weighs nearly 50 pounds and cost $6,700 to install in 2023, and it was recovered whole from the 900 block of Forest Street after the shots-fired response.
A Felony Charge, But No Answers on the Gunfire
An adult male resident was booked into Ramsey County Jail on a felony charge of receiving stolen property in connection with the statue, according to Patch. No arrests have been made for the shooting itself, leaving open questions about who fired the rifle rounds outside the home and why. The theft of the statue in July 2025 and the circumstances that finally led to its recovery remain, in some respects, separate mysteries connected only by the address on Forest Street.
The statue's other components were located far more quickly than the bust itself. Police recovered the granite plaque and nameplate that accompanied the monument from Lake Phalen less than a week after the July 31, 2025 theft, per CBS News, pulling the plaque near the shoreline while the bronze centerpiece disappeared for more than a year.
Honoring an East Side Hero
The custom bust was designed by local Hmong artist and educator Seexeng Lee, a family friend who worked with the Lee family and city officials to honor Suni Lee's East Side roots, according to KARE 11. The project pooled resources from St. Paul Parks and Recreation, the St. Paul Parks Conservancy, and Ward 6 Councilmember Nelsie Yang. When the bust was unveiled on July 30, 2023 — a day the city proclaimed “Sunisa Day” — Lee became the first female athlete ever honored with a dedicated statue in a St. Paul public park, commemorating her individual all-around gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
Lee made history at the 2020 Tokyo Games as the first Hmong American Olympian in any sport and the first Asian American woman to win individual all-around gymnastics gold, according to ESPN. She was raised in St. Paul's East Side neighborhood, home to one of the largest Hmong American populations in the United States, and Lake Phalen Regional Park — where the statue stood and where officials plan to reinstall it — houses the Hmong Cultural Plaza near the Lake Phalen Lakeside Activity Center, per city records. St. Paul Police Chief Henry said the statue honored Lee's achievements across multiple Olympic Games, and authorities plan to reinstall it at Phalen Regional Park in the near future.
Part of a Bigger Pattern of Bronze Thefts
The theft of Lee's statue followed another prominent metal art theft in St. Paul just months earlier. In February 2025, a bronze statue of author F. Scott Fitzgerald was stolen from outside a former school building and cut up for scrap metal, as reported by FOX 9. A scrap metal yard employee alerted police after a suspect attempted to sell the cut-up pieces, ultimately leading to an arrest in that case.
The St. Paul Police Department has noted that Minnesota state law requires scrap metal sellers offering copper or other valuable metal worth over $25 to hold a valid license and present identification — a regulation credited with helping investigators in the Fitzgerald case. Whether Lee's statue was ever targeted for its scrap value, or for another motive entirely, remains unclear; unlike the Fitzgerald bust, it was found whole rather than cut apart.
A Comeback Story of Her Own
The statue's recovery comes as Lee pursues her own return to the sport that made her a household name. Earlier this summer, Lee publicly announced plans to compete at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, according to CBS News, adding another chapter to a career that has already produced six Olympic medals across the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Games. Hoodline previously reported on her elite comeback bid for LA 2028.
For now, the felony charge against the Forest Street resident stands as the only arrest tied to the case, and the shooting that inadvertently led police to the missing bust remains under investigation. St. Paul officials have not given a specific date for when the statue will return to its pedestal at Phalen Regional Park, but for a community that spent more than a year without its monument to a hometown Olympic champion, the recovery itself marks a turning point.
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