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A family whose lives were shattered by a mistaken police raid a year ago have been awarded a $612,498 settlement by the city of Minneapolis to make amends. -------------------------cut----------------- "It's only a mistake for them, but it changed our lives forever," Moua said Friday at a news conference held at Heffelfinger's office. "We want what's best for our children. It's a miracle we survived that night. No amount of money can fix what we went through that night." Acting on wrong information from an informant, a SWAT team broke into Vang Khang's north Minneapolis house last December expecting to find...

A domestic dispute 911 call prompted a Scott County deputy to shoot after he says the occupants hollered that they had a gun. No one was injured. By KATIE HUMPHREY, Star Tribune Last update: January 5, 2009 - 11:07 PM A Scott County deputy responding to a call of a domestic dispute burst into a house and, when the occupants yelled that they had a gun, fired several shots. The house, however, was the wrong building. The call had come from a second building on the property, in the 23000 block of Logan Way. No one was injured in the...

War hero or war criminal? Depending upon who's talking, Gen. Vang Pao is one or the other. As a Madison schoolteacher, I think the answer to that question is not as important as the debate the question has generated. Hmong residents here revere Gen. Vang. They insist that he is a great man who helped thousands of their people escape war-torn Laos to find safety and opportunity in the United States. For that reason, they believe he deserves to have a public school named in his honor. A University of Wisconsin-Madison professor, on the other hand, claims that Gen. Vang...

A man jailed in the death of another squirrel hunter in northern Wisconsin was shot once in each hand before the two wrestled in the woods and he stabbed the victim with a knife he carried to cut the tails off his quarry, the suspect's fiancee told The Associated Press Tuesday. < snip > "There was a verbal confrontation first," James said in a telephone interview from her home in Marinette. "Jim told me that he had stabbed the guy. That is all I know." < snip > Vang's body was found Saturday partially concealed in the Peshtigo Harbor Wildlife...

(Each was honored for ignoring the danger and rushing to help as a St. Paul hunter attacked in 2004. Two paid with their lives.) When deer hunter Chai Soua Vang, of St. Paul, opened fire on a large party of other hunters in northern Wisconsin in 2004, some of the people he killed, wounded and endangered were trying to save the lives of their friends and family members, according to official accounts of the melee. Five members of the party were recognized Thursday -- three posthumously -- with medals from the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission. The Pittsburgh-based fund carries out...

MADISON, WI (AP) -- The man serving life prison sentences for killing six deer hunters in northern Wisconsin in 2004 disagrees with his attorney that there are no grounds to appeal his convictions, according to court documents filed Friday. Chai Soua Vang, 37, mailed eight pages of handwritten documents from a prison in Iowa to the state Court of Appeals responding to his attorney's conclusion about the case, deputy clerk Sheelah Guild said. "There is no prove (sic) beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Vang intentionally killed those victims with the intent to kill," Vang wrote, repeating his trial testimony...

Nearly two years after a dispute over a deer stand that left six western Wisconsin hunters dead, a new Rice Lake park dedicated to the hunters has been completed. Hunters Memorial Park will be dedicated at 1 p.m. Monday. The park, at Whitetail Drive and Linden Avenue, was built with private donations and will be given to the city of Rice Lake. North Builders Association donated labor, one of the two lots needed and some of the building materials. It also raised funds to cover other park expenses. Aspen Creek Services donated the second lot. The cost of the park...

MADISON, WI (AP) -- A man convicted of killing six deer hunters and wounding two others in a shooting spree in northwestern Wisconsin was moved to an Iowa prison because of security concerns. Corrections officials moved Chai Soua Vang to the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison, Iowa, in January, according to state records. He had been imprisoned at the Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun. Officials moved him because they had safety concerns for corrections staff, inmates and others, said Dan Westfield, security chief for the Department of Corrections' division of adults institutions. Westfield compared the case to that of...

BROOK PARK, MN - A FIRE IN THIS RURAL MINNESOTA TOWN DESTROYED A HOME THAT ONCE BELONGED TO A ST. PAUL MAN RECENTLY CONVICTED OF KILLING SIX WISCONSIN DEER HUNTERS, AUTHORITIES SAID. THE FIRE REDUCED THE CEDAR-SIDED HOUSE AND ITS TWO-STORY PLAYHOUSE ONCE OWNED BY CHAI SOUA VANG TO ASHES AND RUBBLE. "IT APPEARS QUITE SUSPICIOUS," MORE FIRE CHIEF GENE ANDERSON SAID OF THE WEDNESDAY MORNING BLAZE. "THE HOUSE WAS BURNT TO THE GROUND BEFORE ANYONE FOUND IT." THE CURRENT OWNER, KYLE MALLE, BOUGHT THE HOME FROM VANG IN JULY. HE REMODELED THE STRUCTURE AND FINISHED THE BASEMENT FOR HIS...

A Minnesota truck driver serving life in prison for murdering six northern Wisconsin deer hunters last fall is no longer a suspect in the unsolved slaying of a deer hunter in Clark County four years ago, an investigator said Tuesday. Chai Soua Vang was working as a truck driver in the Twin Cities on the day James Southworth was shot, said Kerry Kirn, a detective with the Clark County Sheriff's Department. Southworth, 37, of Medford, was shot twice in the back near his tree stand on family land near Neillsville on Nov. 23, 2001, during the nine-day deer hunting season....

HAYWARD, WIS. -- Chai Soua Vang, who killed six Wisconsin deer hunters and wounded two others last fall, was sentenced this afternoon to life in prison with no possibility of release. Vang will serve six life sentences, plus five years for each, consecutively, said Judge Norman Yackel, in Sawyer County Circuit Court in Hayward. Yackel said the sentences are the harshest provided by the state and were justified by the gravity of the offense, Vang's character as well as a need to protect the community and deter future crime.

Prosecutors say they want Chai Vang to spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole when he's sentenced in Sawyer County Court today. Thirty-seven-year-old Chai Soua Vang of St. Paul was convicted on six counts of first-degree intentional homicide and three counts of attempted homicide in the killings last November on private hunting land south of Hayward. The hunters were shot on the second day of the gun deer season. Four of the victims were shot in the back and all but one were unarmed. Vang claims he heard racial taunts from the hunters prior...

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When Tong Yang goes hunting, he's looking for fun - not for trouble. Yang has spent many an evening this fall perched in a tree stand, hoping a trophy buck would come within range of his crossbow. When does pass below, as a pair did during an outing in the woods here last week, he's not interested. "Just be patient for another time," he said. "The trophy (bucks) are very smart. ... That's how they get to be a trophy buck." As Minnesota's firearms deer season draws near, Yang and many other hunters who are Hmong say they have no...

Chai Vang's sentencing in the killings of six fellow hunters is scheduled for Nov. 8. I agree with his mother's comment, "All of this could have been prevented if we could only learn to respect one another." Her plea for respect should motivate us to develop a constructive land use ethic for the North Woods. The assistant attorney general gave us a clue to needed changes in his opening remarks at the trial. He described and justified the hunters' response to Mr. Vang's trespassing as "natural." Many readers will not have any trouble with this remark. I do! Such a...

A psychiatrist says Chai Soua Vang had a history of suicidal and homicidal thoughts dating back two decades or more. Psychiatrist Robert Rawski examined Vang before the St. Paul man went on trial for the fatal shootings of six Wisconsin deer hunters. In the report -- obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel -- Rawski also says Vang believed the voice of an "evil shaman'' has spoken to him occasionally since 1995.

No physical evidence links the unsolved slaying of a deer hunter four years ago to a Minnesota man convicted of killing six northern Wisconsin deer hunters last fall, Clark County Sheriff Louis Rosandich said Friday. It will likely take a confession to solve the slaying, he said. Chai Soua Vang, a 36-year-old Minnesota truck driver, is considered a "person of interest'' in Jim Southworth's death, based on some similarities to the murders that Vang was convicted of last week in Sawyer County, Rosandich said. Clark County investigators have not talked to Vang but want to ask him where he was...

A Minnesota man convicted of killing six deer hunters in northern Wisconsin's Sawyer County last fall is considered a "person of interest'' in the investigation into an unsolved slaying of a hunter in Clark County four years ago, a detective says. Detective Kerry Kirn of the Clark County Sheriff's Department said Thursday that he plans to ask Chai Soua Vang where he was on Nov. 23, 2001, when Jim Southworth was shot twice in the back near his tree stand on family land east of Neillsville in central Wisconsin. A jury in Circuit Court in Hayward found Vang, 36, of...

The guilty verdict against a Hmong man who shot and killed six white deer hunters in northwestern Wisconsin has not eased racial tensions in the area, residents and church leaders said. At the St. Paul Hmong Alliance Church in Maplewood, Minn., church members told senior Pastor Nha Long Yang that they see it in glares from white neighbors or hear it from Hmong children who have been told by white classmates that they can no longer play together. The Hmong man, Chai Soua Vang, a 36-year-old truck driver from St. Paul, Minn., was convicted Friday by an all-white jury of...

MADISON — The foreman of a jury that found a Hmong immigrant guilty of killing six white deer hunters said Saturday the man’s testimony that he acted in self-defense was not credible. Chai Soua Vang testified last week that he feared for his life after being threatened and called racial slurs and fired only after someone else shot at him first. Jury foreman William Bremer said in a telephone interview that Vang could have walked away after the hunters angrily confronted him for trespassing on their land in some isolated northwestern Wisconsin woods. After about 32 [sic] hours of deliberations...

Hayward - Chai Soua Vang's tearful farewell to his family after his testimony a day earlier proved prophetic Friday, as a jury convicted him of nine charges that guarantee he will spend the rest of his life in prison for killing six hunters and wounding two others. After three hours of deliberations, the jury rejected Vang's claims of self-defense and found the truck driver from St. Paul, Minn., guilty of six counts of first-degree intentional homicide and three counts of attempted homicide. In addition to the six mandatory life sentences, Vang faces an additional 225 years in prison. His sentencing...

(Self-defense claim rejected in hunter deaths) HAYWARD, WI - A jury found a Hmong immigrant guilty Friday of murdering six deer hunters and wounding two others during a confrontation over trespassing, rejecting his claims he shot in self-defense after one hunter used racial slurs and another fired at him. The two survivors of the shooting had testified the white hunters never shot at Chai Soua Vang before he opened fire on them after they confronted him about trespassing Nov. 21 in a tree stand on their private property in isolated northwestern Wisconsin woods. An all-white jury deliberated about three hours...

Chai Soua Vang was found guilty this afternoon of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of six hunters in Wisconsin's north woods last fall. A jury of eight women and four men deliberated about four hours before coming to their verdict. Vang was also found guilty of two counts of attempted homicide in the shootings of two other hunters who survived. Killed in the confrontation last Nov. 21 were Dennis Drew, 55; Mark Roidt, 28; Robert Crotteau, 42; his son, Joey, 20; Allan Laski, 43, and Jessica Willers, 27. Wounded in the shootings were Terry Willers, 48, and Lauren Hesebeck,...

Hayward, Wis. -- An immigrant truck driver cannot reasonably claim he was defending himself when he opened fire on a group of hunters, killing six, the prosecutor told jurors Friday. But the defense said the confrontation was all about racial prejudice. Chai Soua Vang ambushed some of the victims and chased down one of them, Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager said in her closing argument during the sixth day of Vang's trial. In his closing, Vang's attorney, Steven Kohn, told jurors the prosecution cannot prove who fired the first shot. Vang had testified he started firing only after one of the...

HAYWARD, Wis. -- A verdict has been reached in the Wisconsin trial of Chai Vang, 36, accused of killing six deer hunters and wounding two others during a confrontation in the woods last November after they caught him trespassing in a tree stand. Kelly Kennedy, of the state Department of Justice, said the judge, lawyers and other court personnel are being called back for the announcement. Vang, a Hmong immigrant from St. Paul, Minn., testified he was called racial slurs and that one of the others fired at him before he opened fire in self-defense. Two survivors testified Vang shot...

In an emotional end to the trial of Chai Soua Vang, he testified this afternoon that three of the hunters he killed deserved to die. Vang, charged with killing six hunters and wounding two others in a confrontation over trespassing last November, testified that two of the hunters deserved to die because they called him names. "Why did Mr. [Robert] Crotteau deserve to die?" asked Wisconsin Attorney General Peg Lautenschlauger, the lead prosecutor. "Because he was the one who confronted me and called me names, and that's who he is," said Vang, 36, of St. Paul.

The prosecution rested this morning in the trial of Chai Soua Vang in the deaths of six deer hunters in northern Wisconsin last November, and Vang reaffirmed his intention to testify in his defense this afternoon. The 36-year-old truck driver from St. Paul had tears running down his cheeks as he spoke quietly to his family after court recessed for lunch. A family member said the discussion was a private matter and family members may make a statement after Vang's testimony today. The state's final witness was a medical examiner who testified about details of the autopsies performed on three...

The hunter who angrily swore at Chia Soua Vang during a confrontation over trespassing had a small amount of alcohol in his body when Vang shot and killed him, a medical examiner testified this afternoon. Dr. Kelly Mills, assistant Ramsey County medical examiner, said that Robert Crotteau, one of six hunters killed in gunfire that erupted during the confrontation, had a blood-alcohol content roughly equivalent to the effects of one can of beer, one shot of whiskey or a glass of wine. Mills testified that she also performed autopsies on victim Allan Laski and Jessica Willers. Neither had alcohol or...

Deer hunters testified today that Chai Soua Vang wore camouflaged clothing after shooting six other hunters to death and didn't mention the fatal confrontation when he asked for directions out of the woods. Vang, of St. Paul, has said he acted in self-defense when he killed the six and wounded two others last November in rural Sawyer County, after they confronted him for trespassing. But prosecutors in his murder trial, now in its fourth day, say his self-defense claim isn't supported by the evidence or his behavior after the shootings.

A firearms expert testified in the trial of Chai Soua Vang this morning that many ammunition casings, bullets and bullet fragments found at the scene of last November's shooting were fired by the rifle police seized from Vang. William Newhouse, an expert from the Wisconsin State Crime Lab, also testified that using a telescopic sight impedes a shooter's accuracy at short range.

In a strong voice that sometimes shook with grief, deer hunter Lauren Hesebeck described today the harrowing moments last November when Chai Soua Vang shot him from almost point-blank range, and how he watched friends die on the forest floor in northern Wisconsin. Hesebeck was called to the stand this morning in the third day of the trial of Vang, 36, of St. Paul, in connection with the deaths of six fellow deer hunters. Vang watched impassively as Hesebeck described the shootings, which happened after Hesebeck's group promised to report Vang for trespassing. Hesebeck said he was at the hunting...

In a strong but sometimes shaky voice, deer hunter Lauren Hesebeck described today the harrowing moments last November when Chai Soua Vang shot him from almost point-blank range, and how he watched friends die on the forest floor in northern Wisconsin. Hesebeck was called to the stand this morning in the third day of the trial of Vang, 36, of St. Paul, in connection with the deaths of six fellow deer hunters. Vang watched impassively as Hesebeck described the fatal confrontation, which began after Vang was confronted for trespassing.

In a hushed and transfixed courtroom, Terry Willers described late this morning feeling the impact of Chai Vang's bullet as it hit him. ''In a split second, I felt a burn and felt the ripple through my body,'' said Willers, who was one of two people who survived a confrontation in the north woods of Wisconsin that left six other hunters dead. ''I went to think about moving, and I couldn't move ... the only thing I could think of was that I couldn't help anybody, so I yelled that I'd been hit. ''I felt faint and heard some ringing...

The trial of a St. Paul man accused of killing six northern Wisconsin deer hunters continued this morning with testimony from two law enforcement officers who were at the scene of the shootings last fall. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources warden Brian Knepper described how authorities used a hunting license number from a tag Chai Soua Vang was wearing on his back to identify him. One of the hunters wrote the license number down in the dirt on the hood of an all-terrain vehicle after confronting Vang for trespassing. Gerald Kotajarvi, a forensic expert from the Wisconsin state crime lab,...

Several people at or near the area where six northern Wisconsin deer hunters were gunned down last fall in a barrage of least 20 shots will testify in the trial of a Minnesota truck driver accused of murder, Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager said. Lautenschlager would not identify who she will call as witnesses for the prosecution when Chai Soua Vang's murder trial resumes Monday. But she indicated the witnesses would include more than just the two men who survived gunshot wounds from the Nov. 21 shootings at a Sawyer County deer camp, where 15 people had gathered. "I can't talk...

A Hmong deer hunter on trial for murder felt physically threatened by a group of white hunters who tormented him with racial insults, his attorney told jurors Saturday. But a prosecutor said Chai Soua Vang opened fire because he was angry the group disrespected him. Vang is accused of killing six deer hunters and wounding two others after a confrontation over trespassing exploded into gunfire. Vang's attorney, Steve Kohn, said Vang started shooting because he believed another hunter fired first. "You will hear him telling you that he felt he was under siege," Kohn said during the opening day of...

Was St. Paul truck driver Chai Soua Vang just plain angry when he killed six fellow deer hunters, or was he terrified into believing he must kill or die? The answer to that question, jurors learned Saturday as Vang's trial began, will determine whether he's guilty of murder or the victim of racist bullying. In an opening statement in a packed Hayward courtroom, the prosecutor and defense attorney depicted last November's killings in vastly different lights and disclosed some new details. "In the end, it was nothing more than anger," said Roy Korte, an assistant Wisconsin attorney general.

HAYWARD, Wis. — A deer hunter charged with killing six men felt physically threatened as the other men tormented him with racial insults in a confrontation over trespassing, his attorney told a jury Saturday.

The trial of Chai Soua Vang, a St. Paul truck driver, in the deaths of six fellow deer hunters in northern Wisconsin, got underway this morning with the prosecutor's plea that the jury weigh the evidence to reject Vang’s contention that he acted in self-defense. “In the end it was nothing more than anger,” said Roy Korte, an assistant Wisconsin attorney general, in his opening statement to the jury in a packed courtroom. “Because he felt the victims --or some of them -- disrespected him and because he knew the victims -- or some of them -- intended to report...

In only three hours a jury was empaneled Thursday to hear the case against Chai Soua Vang, the St. Paul truck driver accused of murdering six fellow deer hunters and wounding two others last fall in a confrontation in northern Wisconsin. Sawyer County Circuit Judge Norman Yackel, who had hoped to pick a jury in one or two days, ordered that the all-white jury of 10 women and four men be bused almost 300 miles to Hayward, Wis., and he scheduled attorneys' opening statements for Saturday. The jury, selected in Madison because of defense attorneys' concerns about heavy pretrial publicity...

Fourteen people were chosen today to serve as jurors in the trial of Chai Soua Vang, the St. Paul man accused of killing six deer hunters and wounding two others near Hayward last November. The process concluded before noon. The panel includes 10 women and four men, all white. Vang is Hmong. Two members of the panel will serve as alternates. During the course of questioning prospective jurors, the defense and prosecution each got seven strikes, allowing them to remove people from the jury pool without specific reasons.

Jury selection in the trial a 36-year-old Minnesota truck driver accused of gunning down six deer hunters in northern Wisconsin got under way today with the judge refusing to force defendant Chai Soua Vang to wear a flak jacket in court. Sawyer County Circuit Judge Norman Yackel, sitting in Dane County, opened proceedings by saying security personnel wanted Vang to wear the bulletproof vest, but the judge said Vang's attorneys objected. Yackel said he would take responsibility if something happened to Vang because he was not wearing such a vest.

Ten months after shots blasted through the serenity of the northwestern Wisconsin woods, silence and anxiety still drape this community of 8,300. Still aching from the shooting deaths of six deer hunters last November, Rice Lake is bracing for the uncertainty of a murder trial, a media onslaught and the reopening of old wounds. "I think everybody wants to get this over with and get on with life," Gary Haus, an electrical lineman, said Wednesday, on the eve of jury selection for the murder trial of Chai Soua Vang.

When jury selection begins today in the murder trial of Chai Soua Vang in Wisconsin, more than just the St. Paul hunter will be facing judgment. "The entire Hmong community will be on trial, not just Chai Vang," said Vangyee Yang, the Hmong Outreach/Resettlement Coordinator at Neighborhood House in St. Paul. Vang, 36, is charged with six counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder in the shooting deaths of six white hunters last November while hunting in northwestern Wisconsin. A truck driver and National Guard veteran, Vang is claiming self-defense. He says in court documents that the hunters...

HAYWARD, WI - In the northwestern Wisconsin town that was home to six deer hunters killed during a confrontation over trespassing, many folks wonder why the murder trial for a Hmong immigrant is needed and whether they will get justice. "The guy admitted he shot people in the back," Rice Lake Mayor Larry Jarvela said. "Some people are upset that they are going to bring all the liberals up from Madison for the jury." On Thursday, 300 miles to the south of this North Woods hunting and fishing paradise, attorneys begin picking a jury for the trial of Chai Soua...

A year after six deer hunters were shot to death in a confrontation with a Hmong immigrant, jurors are being selected in a college town 300 miles to the south of this north woods community. Eyewitnesses and friends of the dead man portray the slayings as cold-blooded, while the defendant says he was shot at first and acted in self-defense after the hunters tormented him with profanity and racial insults. Jury selection begins Thursday in Madison for the trial of Chai Soua Vang, a 36-year-old St. Paul, Minn., truck driver, National Guard veteran and father of six. He was arrested...

A Sawyer County judge has ruled the Minnesota man accused of killing six deer hunters is mentally competent to proceed with his trial. Judge Norman Yackel issued a written ruling after reviewing a psychiatric report on Chai Vang. Defense attorneys earlier told the court they didn't plan to pursue a plea of mental disease or defect. The 36-year-old truck driver from St. Paul will be tried on six counts of first-degree intentional homicide and three counts of attempted homicide. Prosecutors say he opened fire on a hunting party in the woods near Exeland last fall after some hunters confronted him...

The two deer hunters wounded in a shooting that left six of their friends dead in Wisconsin's north woods gave witness statements that are "in conflict with each other," a defense attorney told a judge Wednesday. At a pretrial hearing, Judge Norman Yackel granted a motion that the key witnesses be prevented from hearing each other's testimony at the murder trial of Chai Soua Vang, a Hmong immigrant charged with the slayings in a dispute over trespassing on private land. The injured hunters, Terry Willers and Lauren Hesebeck, gave accounts that differ in "major" ways, defense attorney Steve Kohn told...

Court papers unsealed Friday suggest that Chai Soua Vang will claim self-defense in his trial next month on charges that he fatally shot six deer hunters and wounded two others last year. Also on Friday, Vang's Milwaukee attorneys disclosed in an interview that Vang won't pursue a plea bargain to avoid a trial and that attorneys and the judge already have made significant progress toward picking a jury from the Madison, Wis., area. Vang, 36, of St. Paul, is scheduled to go on trial Sept. 12 in Hayward on charges that he murdered six deer hunters and wounded two others...

Free Event to Feature First Major Public Appearance This Year by Former Army Capt. James Yee, Unjustly Accused of Espionage, But Released With All Charges Dropped MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- An Aug. 18 town hall meeting will allow community members, leaders and journalists to examine the relationship between Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, justice and the media. The free public event will take place from 6-8 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis, Nicollet Ballroom. The town hall, titled "Presumed Guilty," will mark the first public appearance this year by former Army Capt. James Yee, a Muslim Army chaplain who...