Davion Brown’s murder by 16-year-old Knyaw Taw was a “chilling execution in the middle of the day,” Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Nori Wieder said in court Friday.

Knyaw Taw, of St. Paul, got off his bike and walked “coolly, calmly” up to Brown and other men who were standing outside a tobacco store on St. Paul’s Greater East Side around 12:30 p.m. Sept. 10, Wieder said at the teen’s sentencing.

Knyaw Taw pulled a 9-mm Smith & Wesson handgun from his waistband and repeatedly fired at Brown, whose back was turned, hitting the 22-year-old six times at close range.

“A targeted attack, Your Honor,” Wieder told Ramsey County District Judge Jacob Kraus. “It doesn’t appear that Davion even knew he was there.”

Knyaw Taw, who turned 17 in December, was charged in juvenile court with second-degree murder three days after the killing. He waived certification into adult court on March 12 and pleaded guilty to the charge. He faced between 21¾ and 23½ years in prison under state sentencing guidelines.

Kraus gave him a 23-year prison term.

“This case is so sad,” Kraus said before handing down the sentence. “A young man who I never got the pleasure to meet lost his life, and a young man sitting in front of the court going to prison for decades, no matter what number I choose today.”

Court documents do not give a motive for the shooting “and we never have been explained why Davion was killed that day and why he chose Davion as his victim,” Wieder told the court.

He left on his bike

Officers sent to Maryland Tobacco at 1375 Maryland Ave. found Brown lying in the store with multiple gunshot wounds. Medics started transport to Regions Hospital, but Brown, of St. Paul, was pronounced dead in the ambulance.

Officers reviewed area surveillance video, which captured the shooting. Knyaw Taw, wearing a black face mask, a maroon Nike T-shirt and blue jeans, pulled up to the area on a bike. He got off the bike and walked toward a red Ford Expedition SUV parked in the lot. “It appears as if the occupant(s) of the Ford Expedition and the suspect exchanged words,” the charges say.

Knyaw Taw went back to his bike, walked up to Brown and two others in front of the store and shot Brown repeatedly. He got back on his bike and left.

Officers canvassed the area and were notified by a resident that a male matching the suspect’s description was walking south on Germain Street from Idaho Avenue East. A Ramsey County sheriff’s deputy saw Knyaw Taw walking south on Germain Street at Sherwood Avenue, and he ran, cutting across the front yard of a home in the 1500 block of Cottage Avenue. He appeared to be holding something in the waistband of his jeans.

Officers chased him into a backyard, then lost sight of him. He was seen in the backyard of a home in the 1500 block of Clear Avenue and taken into custody. A black face mask and handgun were found in the area.

In an interview with police, Knyaw Taw gave false identification information. Investigators used a database that searches for known fingerprints to identify him.

‘You took my baby’

Knyaw Taw, of St. Paul, had been arrested several times in Ramsey County for nonviolent crimes and was wanted on an active Ramsey County warrant at the time of shooting, prosecutor Wieder noted Friday in court.

Knyaw Taw’s attorney, public defender Erik Sandvick, said trauma and addiction were “everywhere in his life since he was born.” He was born in a refugee camp in Laos and came to the United States at age 6 with his parents. His parents separated after his father was incarcerated and his mother moved to Georgia, Sandvick said, adding “he was left in the care of his paternal grandparents.”

Knyaw Taw was “basically living on the streets and using a wide variety of drugs” in the year prior to the shooting, Sandvick said. “This isn’t an excuse for what happened, but it does give us some context on what was going on.”

When it came time to address the court, Knyaw Taw gave a one sentence apology, saying: “I’m sorry for what I did.”

Earlier, Brown’s mother, Kilolo Claiborne, told the teen she does not forgive him.

“You took my baby,” she said. “You took a father. You took a brother, an uncle, someone that was so precious to our family.”

She called Knyaw Taw a “young boy … who didn’t even know my child. He wasn’t out there bothering nobody. He didn’t bother you. And you still took his life. And for what?”