Posted on 11/22/2004 7:14:22 AM PST by arkady_renko
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 was arrested on Sunday afternoon.
Wisconsin's deer hunting season started on Saturday and lasts only until next Sunday evening.
Bill Wagner, 72, of Oshkosh, was about 3km away near Deer Lake with a party of about 20 other hunters.
After they got word of a shooting, it took him and others about three hours to round up the rest of their party.
He said they heard sirens, planes and helicopters, and noticed the surrounding roads blocked off.
"When you're hunting you don't expect somebody to try to shoot you and murder you," he said. "You have no idea who is coming up to you."
The incident wouldn't stop their hunt, Mr Wagner said.
"We're all old, dyed-in-the-wool hunters," Mr Wagner said. "We wouldn't go home because of this but we will keep it in our minds."
The Editor deserves an e-mail or two...
Editor@theaustralian.com.au
Unbelievable. That's all I can say.
A_R
What the he!! is the matter with these people? This isn't a joking matter, to be subjected to a "cutesy" headline.
Liberal: The only answer is to ban all guns, and while we're at it... hunting too.
Just now on FoxNews:
The perp "has mental issues" that had not been detected
"in his community." Police officer: "nothing in Mr. Vang's history gave us any idea that a problem like this could ensue."
"Mr. Vang is a Laotian. There is an Anti-Laotian prejudice in the area. He may have reacted to some insult."
"Alcohol may have been involved in the incident."
(Anyone familiar with Heyward knows it has a reputation of being a weekender-party site for hunters, snowmobilers, etc. Lots of families visit, but lots of drinkers go there to do little more than get stoned. Putting a weapon in a drunk's hands is asking for trouble.)
I guess Kerry's sister stuck around in Australia and got a gig as a headline writer.
It all began when one hunter, Hank Hill, a local propane salesman, asked the stranger in the deer stand "So, are you Chinese, or Japanese?"
I think the headline is funny.
A_R
I have friends who lived in the Heywood area about 15 years back. They said the Laotian populace had become a real economic problem up there. I always thought that kind of weird since aliens usually settle in a section of the country that has weather similar to their native land. At the time, my friends told me the gun problem involved geese. They convinced me THAT was the reason we here in Northern Illinois had such a huge increase in the goose population. (God, they're everywhere now!) But goose
was a staple in the Laotian diet at the time.
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