Free Republic

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...

The man accused of killing six hunters in the woods of Sawyer County last November was in court Wednesday for a motions hearing on a number of issues that have been brought to the table from both sides. After hearing testimony for about seven hours, Sawyer County Circuit Judge Norman Yackel ruled the confession that Chai Vang allegedly made on the day after the incident can be used in the September trial. Judge Yackel said that Vang's statements were made voluntarily and none of his rights were violated. The judge has also decided to keep the trial in Sawyer County,...

Chai S. Vang, the St. Paul man charged with killing six deer hunters and wounding two others last fall, can get a fair trial in Sawyer County, Wis., the Wisconsin attorney general's office argued in documents filed Wednesday. The state's attorney argued against motions filed earlier by Vang's attorneys, who said that heavy publicity and negative attitudes toward nonwhites in the county would make it difficult to select an impartial jury for Vang's trial, scheduled to begin Sept. 12. "The mere fact that a case has been covered extensively in the media is not a sufficient basis to justify a...

HAYWARD, Wis. (AP) - Attorneys for a man accused of shooting six deer hunters to death and wounding two others in northwestern Wisconsin plan to file motions by Tuesday's deadline. One of Chai Soua Vang's attorneys, Steven Kohn, would not say what the motions will be or how many will be filed, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported in Sunday's editions.Legal experts have said likely defense motions could include reduced bail, a change of venue from Sawyer County and suppression of statements Vang made to investigators without an attorney present.Vang, of St. Paul, Minn., pleaded not guilty Dec. 29 to...

Northern Wisconsin ’s about to get some national exposure, but it’s for something that many people would probably rather forget. N-B-C’s Law and Order will be airing an episode next week called “License to Kill”. The show is loosely based on events surrounding the Sawyer County Massacre. It reportedly shows a scene with blaze-orange clad bodies lying on the ground in a wooded area. To see the trailer for the episode, log on to NBC.com.

So Peg Lautenschlager wants to take over the Chai Vang case. We wish the Wisconsin attorney general good luck. She'll need it. We're inclined to agree with the cynics who think this is more about politics than prosecutorial discretion. After all, it's certainly no coincidence that Lautenschlager will be up for re-election in 2006. It's also important to note that Lautenschlager is trying to live down a DWI conviction. Adding insult to injury, she was in a state-owned vehicle earlier this year when she was pulled over and refused to submit to a sobriety test. Clearly, a victory in the...

MADISON, WIS. -- Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager said Monday that she plans to seek reelection to a second term in 2006 and will personally prosecute the case against Chai Vang, the St. Paul man accused of killing six hunters and wounding two others. {snip} She said she would handle Vang's preliminary hearing Wednesday. Vang faces six counts of murder in the Nov. 21 shootings in Sawyer County. {snip} She said she wants to prosecute Vang because of her "personal interest" in cases that involve crimes against people. She last prosecuted a case of a kidnapper of a 12-year-old girl in...

The man accused of killing six deer hunters in northwestern Wisconsin has another a court appointment this week in Hayward. Chai Soua Vang, from St. Paul, Minnesota, faces six counts of murder in the November 21st shootings, which started after a dispute over a tree stand on private property in southern Sawyer County. Six Rice Lake area residents were killed and two wounded in the shooting spree. Vang was not wounded. Vang's preliminary hearing is set for Wednesday to determine if there is enough evidence for a trial. The 36-year-old remains in the Sawyer County jail on a two-point-five (m)...

MADISON (AP) -- Hmong leaders pleaded for more help from the state to educate Hmong hunters on regulations, as they brainstormed Tuesday on ways to defuse racial tension and help their people earn respect in the aftermath of the North Woods slayings. The session was held a week after Chai Soua Vang, 36, from St. Paul, Minn., was charged with shooting six white hunters to death and wounding two others Nov. 21 after Vang trespassed on their land in Sawyer County. Kou Xiong, the state Department of Natural Resources Hmong liaison, told a group appointed by Gov. Jim Doyle to...

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. - A collection for the families of the six hunters murdered in Northwestern Wisconsin has raised more than $160,000 from around the world. "It's heartwarming to see how people care," said Tim Jubie, chief operating officer for Link Brothers Ford Lincoln Mercury, where one of the victims worked as a salesman. Chai Soua Vang of St. Paul was charged with killing six Rice Lake area hunters Nov. 21 after a dispute over a tree stand on private land in Sawyer County. A fund was set up for the victims' families at Dairy State Bank on Nov. 24....

As a child born in America to Hmong immigrants, the role of mediator between my elders and what they discovered here fell heavily upon me. Lately, as I read of a Hmong man accused of shooting and killing six hunters in Wisconsin, I feel the bridges I have built over a lifetime to connect a past world to this one crumbling under national scrutiny. When I was a child, I would have to remind my grandmothers to pick up the telephone receiver before dialing. It was my generation, born into the world of telephones, raised by those who lived in...

When Chai Soua Vang allegedly opened fire on hunters who confronted him about trespassing near Rice Lake, Wis., another Wisconsin county had a warrant for his arrest for trespassing while hunting in 2002 and failing to pay the fine. ...may have known he stood to be arrested if the hunters who confronted him that day called the sheriff's office. ...In Minnesota's Kanabec County, where Vang bought 40 acres of land last year for hunting, Vang or a member of his hunting party was ordered off a neighbor's land on Nov. 6 this year, opening day of Minnesota's deer hunting season....

Years of racism and hatred directed at the Hmong? Behind the Wisconsin shootings By Elizabeth Schulte | December 3, 2004 | Page 2 BREWING RACIAL tensions reached the boiling point in late November when a Hmong-American shot and killed six white hunters in Wisconsin's North Woods. Chai Vang, a 36-year-old Hmong-American, was hunting on November 21 when he was approached by white hunters who told him that he was on private property. Vang told police that after he climbed down from the hunting platform, the men surrounded him and spewed racial epithets like ?gook, chink and fucking Asian? at him....

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...

RICE LAKE, Wis. - Two survivors of a deer-hunting confrontation that killed six of their friends joined hundreds of people at a community service that included prayers for both comfort and forgiveness. Lauren Hesebeck and Terry Willers sat near each other at the Tuesday night prayer service organized by area ministers who urged people to find comfort in the Lord and avoid falling into fear and prejudice in the wake of the shootings blamed on a Hmong immigrant. "Community support is great," Hesebeck told a reporter, a blaze orange ribbon pinned to his jacket in memory of his hunting buddies....

ST. PAUL - The man charged with murdering six hunters and wounding two others in Northwestern Wisconsin last week is a Hmong shaman who has called on the spirit world in trances that last up to three hours, his family and friends say. The accused, Chai Soua Vang of St. Paul, seeks "the other world" when he tries to cure sick people or invoke divine protection for those who request it, said Ber Xiong, his friend and former hunting companion. "He is a special person," Xiong said. "Chai speaks to the other side. He asks the spirits there to release...

The shootings of eight deer hunters -- the murders of six -- is receiving a lot of attention statewide and in Minnesota, where the shooting suspect is from. Chai Vang's defense attorneys are quiet familiar with the kind of media attention this case is getting. One was part of Mark Chmura's defense team; another represented the man who killed serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer in prison. Attorney Steven Kohn said, "We're not looking for the focus to be on us." "There's an old saying in sports: When you've been there before, act like you've been there before," Kohn said. Kohn has...

Homicide charges were filed Monday afternoon against the St. Paul, Minnesota, man accused of fatally shooting six hunters and wounding two others in Sawyer County. The criminal complaint filed with the court offers new details about the crimes. Vang is charged with six counts of first-degree intentional homicide by use of a dangerous weapon and two counts of attempted first-degree intentional homicide in the November 21st shooting rampage. The criminal complaint filed Monday afternoon in Sawyer County court says the two surviving hunters told investigators that no one in their hunting group pointed a gun at Chai Vang before he...

Some of the victims' relatives (boys/young men)will be guests at the Packer game tonight at Lambeau Field. A tribute or memorial may be given. They are asking attendees of the game to wear blaze orange in rememberance of the fallen hunters. (This time of year almost everyone wears orange to Packer games anyway.) You may want to watch Monday Night Football starting at the top of the hour.

DOBIE, Wis., Nov. 27 - The two gatherings, less than 200 miles apart, seemed to be separated by whole worlds. In this isolated village deep in the pine and cedar woods of the Upper Midwest, mourners trudged through falling snow on Friday to Our Lady of Lourdes Church to remember one of six hunters, all locals, killed near here a week ago. To the southwest, across the state line in Minnesota, thousands of Hmong immigrants streamed into a downtown St. Paul auditorium for three days of New Year's festivities with papaya salad, traditional courtship games and young women in dresses...

RICE LAKE, WIS. -- Lauren Hesebeck stepped out onto his front porch late Tuesday morning over the gentle objection of a family member. His left arm, blasted by the barrage of gunfire that exploded in the Wisconsin woods Sunday, was resting in a blue sling. He wore a Green Bay Packers sweatshirt. Hesebeck looked out over open fields and struggled to speak."Physically, I feel fine," he said. "I got pain medication. I can move my arm."It was his heart, he said in a murmur, that ached.

** Initial Reports and Updates ** Multiple Shooting in Wisconsin - - 11/21/2004 6:04:56 PM CST - - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1285519/posts HUNTER GOES BERZERK IN WISCONSIN; AT LEAST FIVE DEAD - - 11/21/2004 6:15:12 PM CST - - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1285531/posts Five dead, three injured after hunter denied access to tree stand - - 11/21/2004 8:50:48 PM CST - - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1285531/posts?page=200#200 News update: Five dead in Wisconsin after hunting dispute erupts into shooting - - 11/21/2004 9:17:23 PM CST - - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1285531/posts?page=220#220 SIXTH HUNTER DIES FROM SHOOTING INCIDENT - - 11/22/2004 10:01:26 PM CST - - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1286408/posts Five killed, three wounded in Wisconsin shooting...

November 24, 2004 Hunter Tells Police He Was ThreatenedBy STEPHEN KINZER T. PAUL, Nov. 23 - The Hmong-American man being held in the killings of six hunters and the wounding of two others in Wisconsin has told the police that he opened fire after the hunters had cursed him with racial epithets and that one of them had shot at him. The man, Chai Soua Vang, made the statement on Monday in an interview with police investigators. It was filed on Tuesday as a court document in Hayward, Wis., and it is the first sign of a motive in...

<p>The deer hunter accused of killing six hunters and wounding two others in the woods of northern Wisconsin is believed to have resided in the Toledo area as a youth and attended Jones Junior High School.</p> <p>Chai Vang, 36, of St. Paul, is listed as a student at the South Toledo school during the 1982-1983 school year, according to Toledo Public School documents.</p>

HAYWARD, Wis. — Investigators returned Wednesday to the scene of Sunday's deer hunter killings, hoping to sort out two versions of how six people died. The state attorney general's office took over the case, meanwhile, restricting information from the Sawyer County sheriff and getting one of the survivors to cancel a news conference. Charges were not expected to be filed in the case until Monday at the earliest. Sheriff Jim Meier said investigators interviewed survivors of the shootings again and also questioned other members of the hunting party who hadn't been interviewed previously. They were trying to sort out variations...

Chai Soua Vang's military record According to the public portion of Chai Soua Vang's military record on file at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis: Jan. 11, 1989: He entered the California Army National Guard as a trainee with the 246th Medical Detachment in Sacramento. Jan. 24, 1989: Basic training at Fort Dix, N.J., followed by patient administration specialist training at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. A patient administration specialist does hospital admissions and dispositions of patients but is not trained to provide medical treatment. May 26, 1989: Returned to the 246th Medical Detachment of the California Army National...

Hmong leaders in Fresno are worried that the hunting tragedy in Wisconsin might affect the public's perception and image of Hmong refugees. They also say they want to prevent a similar violent situation from occurring here. About a dozen people from the Hmong community met Wednesday at the Fresno Center for New Americans to discuss Chai Soua Vang, a St. Paul, Minn., man accused of killing six hunters Sunday. Vang told authorities that the men used racial slurs and shot at him first. Lue Yang, the center's executive director, said he's worried that negative publicity from the case could affect...

Wisconsin Hunter Murders Show Need For Effective Assault Weapons Ban—Armed Hunters No Match For SKS Assault Rifle President Has Power to Fully Ban Import of All Foreign-Made Assault Rifles Such as SKSs And AK-47sWashington, DC—SKS assault rifles like the one reported to have been used to murder five hunters and wound three others in Wisconsin over the weekend are a primary threat to police, the Violence Policy Center (VPC) reported today. So far in 2004, at least six law enforcement officers have been slain by SKSs. In the wake of the shooting, the VPC called on President George W....

In a nation where the number of nut cases running loose seems to have increased exponentially in the past decade or so, I guess we shouldn't be surprised that a deer hunter killed six other hunters and wounded two more in Wisconsin after an argument over trespassing.And I guess it's even more surprising that incidents in which hunters deliberately shoot other hunters are rare, considering the potential for mayhem with all of those armed amateurs running loose in the woods.The closest thing I could find to the Wisconsin killings happened in Michigan's Upper Peninsula in 1994, when a local screwball...

I was born within 50 miles of the shooting area. I will refer to this area as the "North Woods" as it is common among the local population. I grew up there, and spent my youth roaming the woods and rivers. I became an accomplished woodsman, hunter and trapper. I financed a significant fraction of my college education with the proceeds from the trap line. I was a game warden in Wisconsin for a short time early in my career. Much of the information that I recently read about the area is speculation and prejudice, based on little or no...

Story about the woman killed by Vang last weekend

HAYWARD (AP) - Relatives of a man held in the killings of six deer hunters and wounding of two others huddled together and sobbed after Chai Vang was escorted Monday from a Sawyer County jail cell for a brief visit."We don't really know what went wrong. We don't know," said Deu Khang, describing herself as Vang's cultural wife, not his legal wife. "I am in shock. I don't have anything to say. I don't know what to say."Mr. Vang's brother, Sang Vang, 33, said the family was devastated. He said his brother has lived in the United States for more...

Row ends with five deerly departed AP 23nov04 HAYWARD, Wisconsin: Five deer hunters are dead and three are in hospital with bullet wounds after a dispute over a shooting site in Wisconsin at the beginning of the US state's nine-day hunting season. The violence began shortly after members of a hunting party saw a hunter occupying their "hide", a concealed shooting position, Sawyer County Chief Deputy Tim Zeigle said. A confrontation and shooting followed. One of the shooting victims radioed for help, Deputy Zeigle said, but when more hunters came to the scene, they also were shot. The alleged gunman...

Last Updated Mon, 22 Nov 2004 09:23:56 EST MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. - Five deer hunters died and three were injured on Sunday in an apparent shootout over who could occupy a hunting platform in a northwestern Wisconsin forest. The exact circumstances of the deadly incident that occurred during the annual hunts opening weekend in southwestern Sawyer County remained unclear Monday morning. Police said a single male suspect was arrested Sunday afternoon. Emergency personnel gather near the scene of a series of shootings near Hayward, Wisconsin. (AP photo) Two hunters were returning to their rural cabin on private land, when they reportedly...

Hunting is a tradition many Hmong have continued to pursue since resettling here from Laos, though not always smoothly. Some Hmong hunters in the Twin Cities say they have been targets of harassment and intimidation. Some of their white counterparts complain that the former refugees, used to unregulated hunting in their homeland, sometimes fail to comply with modern hunting regulations and wildlife management practices. "A lot of these hunters are people who have a strong tradition in hunting," said Hmong activist Michael Yang of St. Paul, who joined friends looking for deer on his first hunting trip a few weeks...

Authorities also look at 2001 hunter slayingUpdated: 11-24-2004 12:18:03 PM(AP) - Clark County's sheriff says his detectives "jumped on it right away" when trying to determine any possible link between the fatal Sawyer County shootings and the 2001 death of a hunter near Neillsville, Wisconsin. Sheriff Louis Rosandich says the homicide of Jim Southworth in November of 2001 has not been forgotten by area citizens or anyone else. Southworth was hunting alone on family land when he was shot twice in the back. Witnesses reported a late 1980s-model Nissan or Chevy truck near the scene of the shooting. Three occupants...

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...

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

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...

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...

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.

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.

Homicide connection explored Sunday's shooting has similarities to a 2001 killing 80 miles away By JOHN DIEDRICH jdiedrich@journalsentinel.com Posted: Nov. 23, 2004 Law enforcement agencies are investigating if the man suspected of killing six deer hunters and injuring two others was involved in the unsolved slaying of a deer hunter three years ago in a nearby Wisconsin county, a detective said Tuesday. Clark County Sheriff's Department Detective Kerry Kirn said he has exchanged frequent calls with investigators in Sawyer County since Monday morning. "I can tell you we have been in contact with authorities from Sawyer County to address that,"...

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...

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...

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'...

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).

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...

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...