Lifted79CJ7
BIRCHWOOD, Wis. (Nov. 22) -- A deer hunter who apparently intruded on private property killed five other hunters who had been staying in a nearby cabin and wounded three more during the opening weekend of deer season, authorities said.
A 36-year-old man was arrested Sunday afternoon when he came out of the woods, sheriff's officials said. Two of the wounded were in critical condition Monday.
Deputy Jake Hodgkinson identified the suspect as Chai Vang but would give no details. Vang is from St. Paul, Minn., said Paul Schnell, a spokesman for the St. Paul police department.
A police officer interviews witnesses near the scene of Sunday's deadly hunting dispute near Hayward, Wis.
The shooting started when two hunters returning to their rural cabin saw the suspect in one of their hunting platforms in a tree, Sawyer County Chief Deputy Tim Zeigle said. The platforms or ''tree stands'' allow hunters to see deer without being easily seen themselves.
Both of those hunters were wounded and one of them radioed friends at the cabin a quarter-mile away. Other members of their group responded and they also were shot, he said.
''It's absolutely nuts. Why? Over sitting in a tree stand?'' asked Zeigle.
Zeigle said the suspect was ''chasing after them and killing them,'' with a SKS 7.62 mm semiautomatic rifle, a common hunting weapon. Wisconsin's statewide deer gun hunting season started Saturday and lasts for nine days.
About 20 shots were fired but it was unclear if any of the hunters had fired at the suspect or who might have shot first, Zeigle said. There was just one gun among the eight people killed or wounded, he said.
The dead included a a teenage boy and a woman, and a father and son, Zeigle said. Some of the victims were shot more than once. All five were from the Rice Lake area, about 15 miles southwest of Birchwood in northwestern Wisconsin, he said.
Authorities found two bodies near each other and the others were scattered over 100 yards.
The suspect, who did not have a compass, got lost in the woods and two other hunters who didn't know about the shootings helped him find his way out, Zeigle said.
The man was arrested when he emerged from the woods and a Department of Natural Resources officer recognized the deer license on his back from a description given by one of the shooting victims, Zeigle said.
The man was out of ammunition, he said.
One of the injured hunters was in critical condition Monday at St. Joseph's Hospital in Marshfield. Another was in critical condition and a third in stable condition at Lakeview Medical Center in Rice Lake.
Hunter Bill Wagner, 72, of Oshkosh was about two miles away near Deer Lake with a party of about 20 other hunters when they heard sirens, planes and helicopters and discovered roads in the area had been barricaded.
''When you're hunting, you don't expect somebody to try to shoot you and murder you,'' Wagner said. ''You have no idea who is coming up to you.''
''We're all old, dyed-in-wool hunters,'' he said. ''We wouldn't go home because of this, but we will keep it in our minds. We're not forgetting it.''
111!!!
mrtazwrench
:smile: :(: :shock: 111!!! 1 gun among the victoms, that explains why the shooter got away.
cheapjeep
I don't know about WI. but an SKS/AK47 is not a common hunting weapon. Most hunter's don't carry 30 round's of ammo.There is something wrong with this (other than 5 people are dead and more wounded). The first thing I thought when I heard about this is that Mutrat said he was going hunting, let's hope he stay's safe.
My thought's and prayer's are with the familys. [-o<
Goose
Ummm Not to sound racist but did anyone catch the suspects name?? Chai Vang..with an SKS ?? umm this sounds a lot like a few after action reports. Lone sniper catches platoon unawares and decimates same.
You gotta wonder if this dudes having flashbacks to his old VC days.. or something similar. and you know they violated the old Horror movie rules..when you go out to investigate a strange noise and there is a flashlight AND PISTOL on the shelf you only take the flashlight..
At any rate my sympathy to the families as well, it is sad to die a pointless death.
jeepsr4ever
111!!! Vang must be from Taylors falls....thats 9 miles from me :shock:
rollen dean montoya
just take this fool out and shoot him and save the taxpayers in mn
some money!
eight
Seems like it wasn't deer he was hunting......
Soylent_Green
maybe he just played too much nintendo and cracked. :-|
111!!!
W.T.Sumner
After my 13 year old son saw this on TV he understood why I don't let him go hunting with anybody but me.
ol' school power
Goose wroteUmmm Not to sound racist but did anyone catch the suspects name?? Chai Vang..with an SKS ?? umm this sounds a lot like a few after action reports. Lone sniper catches platoon unawares and decimates same.
You gotta wonder if this dudes having flashbacks to his old VC days.. or something similar. and you know they violated the old Horror movie rules..when you go out to investigate a strange noise and there is a flashlight AND PISTOL on the shelf you only take the flashlight..
At any rate my sympathy to the families as well, it is sad to die a pointless death.
Took the words pretty much out of my mouth and also a few co workers.
Sounded like a flashback to sniping "Charlie"
mrtazwrench
local tv station is reporting vang is now a person of intrest in another incedent involving a murdered hunter in wis in 2001.
:-| 111!!!
http://kstp.com/
Lifted79CJ7
Shooting suspect had Army sharpshooting badge
Updated: 11/24/2004 08:31:37 AM
By ASHLEY H. GRANT
Associated Press Writer
Chai Vang
ST. PAUL (AP) - The man suspected in the shooting deaths of six Wisconsin hunters spent six years in the California National Guard, and earned a sharpshooter qualification badge, according to military records obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.
Chai Soua Vang also earned an expert qualification badge for hand grenade during his time in the Guard, from 1989 to 1995.
But his primary role for the Guard in Sacramento was as a "patient administration specialist," a mostly clerical role. After his discharge, he spent two more years in the Individual Ready Reserve.
His records also include a Good Conduct medal.
Lt. Jonathan Shiroma, a spokesman for the California Guard, said sharpshooter is a middle qualification level for a basic trainee, above marksman but below expert. The sharpshooter qualification requires hitting 30 to 35 out of 40 targets at distances ranging from 50 to 300 meters, Shiroma said.
Shiroma said trainees have to shoot at least at the marksman level to make it out of basic training. Dov Schwartz, an Army spokesman in Washington, said the qualification was "not an extraordinarily special thing" for a shooter.
Since moving to Minnesota, Vang appears to have led a quiet life, playing soccer and raising roosters at the St. Paul home he shared with his family. He wasn't widely known in the city's Hmong community.
Acquaintances viewed him as cordial, but his past includes a brush with Minneapolis police after Vang threatened his wife with a gun.
Dwayne Meier, the owner of a Minneapolis apartment building where Chai Vang used to live, called him "an OK tenant."
Meier said Vang was outgoing and "full of ideas, kind of an engaging personality."
"I remember him particularly because he had different ideas, he seemed to be kind of a big thinker. He wanted to start a business and develop partnerships to do so. He was an enthusiastic kind of guy, the kind of guy I thought would be successful in this world. So I don't know what happened."
Sang Vang, the suspect's brother, said Vang - a father of six - was nice and "reasonable" and that he perhaps he was provoked. In a statement to investigators released Tuesday, Chai Vang said he was fired on first and the other hunters used racial slurs.
The brothers came to this country from their native Laos in 1980. Chai Vang is a naturalized citizen who speaks English well, Sang Vang said.
Chai Vang moved to Minneapolis around 2000.
Charlie Golden-Black, who lives near Vang's current home, said she didn't really know the family other than the occasional pleasantries and seeing Vang take out the trash every week.
"I don't even know these people, and they live across the street," she said. "That's pathetic."
Vang's yellow, two-story house is surrounded by a chain-link fence, including a gate with a "no trespassing" sign.
Another neighbor, who refused to give his name, called Vang "a normal dude."
Vang has worked as a commercial truck driver, and has a couple of driving violations - one for failing to obey a sign and one for speeding, both while driving a commercial vehicle. He once took 93 crappies more than allowed under the state's fishing regulations.
And in 2001, he threatened his wife with a handgun, police in Minneapolis said.
Vang told officers he and his wife began arguing when he told her he wanted to separate. According to the report, he told police "an argument got out of hand at which time he waved a handgun while threatening to kill her."
Police found the handgun in the couple's bedroom, loaded with a shell in the chamber. Vang never faced charges in that incident because his wife refused to cooperate with prosecutors, a Minneapolis police spokesman said.
The police reports on that incident said Say Xiong was the suspect's wife, but a woman named Deu Khang, 37, on Monday identified herself to The Associated Press as Vang's "cultural" wife.
St. Paul police were called to Vang's East Side home five times since June 2003. Twice, someone at the house was a victim of a theft; twice, they were called on a report of a domestic disturbance.
The other call was last year, to serve an arrest warrant for theft on Xia Yang, whose relationship to Chai Vang wasn't immediately known.
Mudrat
Hey all, I'm back safe, sound and 2 deer in the freezer. I heard about this after I got home and my wife told me about it. From the 'update' if he was Hmong, he's of Thai extraction, not VC.
We only had to deal with a bunch of other hunters and I left early Friday because there were at least 6 orange hats that infiltrated the field I was hunting. So I cut out and made sure they all saw every inch of orange I could wave around!!!
Mudrat
Lifted79CJ7
Hey Pat, welcome back! Glad to hear it wasn't you that snapped!!
8)
Jack
pyagid
Lifted79CJ7
Wow, think he took out a little pent up aggression??????? 111!!!
MC
Wow thats crazy!!!! :oops:
mrtazwrench
did you see the lawyers this guy got, they say the same ones jeffery dahmer had. 111!!!
Mudrat
mrtazwrench wrotedid you see the lawyers this guy got, they say the same ones jeffery dahmer had. 111!!!
That's OK, they lost that one too 8)
Mudrat
mrtazwrench
:mrgreen:
