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BERWICK, Louisiana (WVLA) - A deer hunter captures a spooky image wandering through the Louisiana woods at night. A hunter near Baton Rouge says he found this freaky photo on his deer stand camera. The hunting camera was broken but the memory card was still there and so was this bizarre image. It looks like a cross between a human and an animal, with long slender appendages and glowing eyes. The hunter says he just hopes it's a vegetarian, if he runs into it in the woods again.

MINNEAPOLIS - Whether he was acting in self-defense, suffering from mental illness or consumed by rage when he shot eight hunters in the Wisconsin woods, Chai Soua Vang faces an awfully difficult task in mounting a defense, legal experts say. "His attorneys acknowledge him doing it. He admits doing it. And he admits in his confession (to) chasing down one of these guys and shooting him in the back," said Ron Meshbesher, a prominent Minneapolis defense attorney. "It'd be a miracle if he beat this rap." Vang, 36, made his first appearance before a judge Tuesday in Hayward, Wis. He...

HAYWARD, Wis. – The man suspected of shooting six hunters to death and a survivor agree that the tragedy began with a confrontation on private land. But they sharply differ on what happened next. Survivor Lauren Hesebeck told investigators Chai Vang, 36, of St. Paul, Minn., turned around after a verbal exchange and started shooting his rifle from 40 yards away. But Vang told Sawyer County investigators he began firing only after one of Hesebeck's hunting buddies, Terry Willers, shot at him with a rifle from about 100 feet away and missed. Vang, a Hmong immigrant from Laos, also claimed...

According to WTMJ-Am radio news, the hunter accused of killing six hunters is now claiming he was shot at first. He is saying he left property the first time he was asked and the other hunters followed him, surrounded him, called him racial and other names, and shot at him first.

Suspect says hunters provoked him Vang says he was surrounded, called names and shot at before shootings By JOHN DIEDRICH, LEE BERGQUIST and TOM HELD jdiedrich@journalsentinel.com Posted: Nov. 23, 2004 Hayward - The suspect arrested for shooting eight hunters, killing six of them, says he was surrounded by the group, called derogatory racial names and shot at before he opened fire, according to court records released today. His account differs sharply from details released Monday by the Sheriff's Department and from the accounts from some of the victims, who describe an essentially unprovoked shooting rampage by Chai Soua Vang, a...

Updated: 11/21/2004 06:00:59 PM Rice Lake, WI -- Five people are dead and three injured in a shooting incident that apparently began over a hunting dispute in western Wisconsin. The confrontation began around noon, when authorities said a man in hunting gear was told to leave some wooded land by the property owners. The man left, but returned with an automatic rifle and started firing. Sawyer County was in a virtual lockdown as authorities searched for the gunman. One suspect was eventually taken into custody around 5:20 p.m. The suspect's name has not been released. Officials at Lakeview Medical Center...

EXELAND, Wis. - Five people are dead and three injured in a shooting incident that apparently began over a hunting dispute in western Wisconsin. The confrontation began around noon in a rural area southwestern Sawyer County. Authorities said a hunting party returning to their deer shack reported seeing a hunter unknown to them occupying their tree stand. That led to a shooting. One of the shooting victims used a walkie talkie to radio back to the deer shack for help. When the victim's hunting partners came to the scene, they were also shot. Sawyer County was in a virtual lockdown...

HAYWARD, Wis. -- A dispute among deer hunters over a tree stand in northwestern Wisconsin erupted Sunday in a series of shootings that left five people dead and three injured, officials said. The alleged gunman, a man from the Twin Cities area, was arrested at about 5:15 p.m. Sunday at the Rusk and Sawyer County line, according to Sawyer County sheriff's officials. The violence began shortly after a hunting party saw a hunter occupying their tree stand, Sawyer County Chief Deputy Tim Zeigle told KSTP-TV of St. Paul, Minn. A confrontation, and shooting, followed.

1 arrested after hunters find a man in their spot and shooting ensues A dispute among deer hunters over a tree stand in northwestern Wisconsin erupted Sunday in a series of shootings that left five people dead and three others injured, officials said. Jake Hodgkinson, a deputy at the county jail, identified the suspect as Chai Vang but would give no additional details. Several news organizations in Minneapolis-St. Paul reported the suspect was 36-years-old and from St. Paul. The incident happened when two hunters were returning to their rural cabin on private land in Sawyer County and saw the suspect...

BIRCHWOOD, Wis. - A deer hunter shot and killed five people and wounded three others in northwestern Wisconsin following a dispute about a tree stand during the hunt's opening weekend, authorities said. The 36-year-old alleged gunman was arrested Sunday afternoon, Sawyer County sheriff's officials said. Jake Hodgkinson, a deputy at the county jail, identified the suspect as Chai Vang but would give no additional details. Paul Schnell, a spokesman for the St. Paul, Minn., police department, said the man was from St. Paul. The incident began when two hunters were returning to their rural cabin on private land in Sawyer...

Wisconsin town in shock over shootings Duluth News Tribune RICE LAKE, Wis. - The community where eight people were shot, five of them fatally, after a hunting dispute Sunday was trying to absorb the horror of the incident today. "The community is in shock," said Glen Ruie of Rice Lake. "These people weren't murdered. It was a massacre. We're all just trying to cope with it." Mike Neil, a salesman at Link Motors in Rice Lake, where two of the shooting survivors work, said, "This is insane. This doesn't happen around here." He predicted that the incident would lessen hunters'...

Deadly Shooting Spree Update November 22, 2004 Andrew Fefer The Sawyer County sheriff says there are thousands of acres of public land in that area available for hunting, but the dispute took place at midday Sunday on four-hundred acres of private land. When the landowner saw 36-year-old Chai Vang in a tree stand without permission, he radioed to his hunting party. "He stated over the radio he was going to go and ask the persons to leave," said Sheriff Jim Meier. "He approached the person and asked him to leave at which time the landowners and occupants of the cabin...

Help For Hunting Victims Families November 22, 2004 A fund has been set up for the families of survivors and victims of the hunter shootings in Sawyer County. Contributions can be sent to: Rice Lake Hunters Survivors and Victims Funds Dairy State Bank 16 S. Main Street Rice Lake, WI 54868 Five hunters were shot and killed and three others wounded Sunday after a confrontation with a deer who apparently entered private property. The 36-year-old St. Paul man is being held in the Sawyer County jail at Hayward.

METEOR TOWNSHIP, Wis. — The man suspected of shooting eight Wisconsin hunters methodically pursued his victims, authorities said today, noting that the bodies of four of the five who died were found relatively close together. Those killed were identified today as Robert Crotteau, 42; his 20-year-old son, Joey Crotteau; Al Laski, 43; Mark Roidt, 28; and Jessica Willers, 27. Some were shot more than once. All five victims were from the Rice Lake area and were dead when officers arrived to the scene near the Town of Meteor in southwestern Sawyer County, investigators said. Authorities found two bodies near each...

And this past weekend in Wisconsin, a Minnesota man armed with an assault weapon was arrested after five people were shot and killed after arguing over a good hunting spot. The gun the killer used, a 7.62 mm SKS semiautomatic rifle, appears to be the same type of gun used by an Alabama man to kill three Birmingham police officers last June. It has been only ten weeks since the Federal assault weapons ban sunsetted on September 13. ---snip--- see whole release at link to source

A SIXTH DEER HUNTER HAS DIED OF WOUNDS SUFFERED IN A SHOOTING IN NORTHWESTERN WISCONSIN. THE SIXTH HUNTER'S FAMILY RELEASED A STATEMENT THROUGH LAKEVIEW MEDICAL CENTER IN RICE LAKE, SAYING 55-YEAR-OLD DENNY DREW DIED AT ST. JOSEPH HOSPITAL IN MARSHFIELD. HE WAS AMONG EIGHT PEOPLE WOUNDED IN THE SHOOTING THAT BROKE OUT, APPARENTLY AFTER A HUNTER WAS TOLD TO LEAVE A TREE STAND ON PRIVATE PROPERTY YESTERDAY. FIVE OF THE VICTIMS DIED AT THE SCENE. DREW WAS AMONG THREE OTHERS WOUNDED. THE OTHER TWO REMAIN HOSPITALIZED. CHAI VANG OF ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA IS IN CUSTODY PENDING FORMAL CHARGES IN THE...

HAYWARD, Wis. — Thick glass prevented Chai Soua Vang (search) from any contact with family members during a brief visit Monday at Sawyer County Jail. They spoke via telephone, mixing English with the native language of Hmong immigrants from Laos (search).