Posted on 11/24/2004 7:48:04 PM PST by Ladysmith
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 than two decades and served in the U.S. Army.
"I still don't believe it," he said. "He is one of the nicest persons. ... Maybe something provoked him or something. He is a reasonable person."
Some Hmong leaders questioned whether racial differences figured in the shootings Sunday; authorities said they couldn't explain what could cause such an outburst.
Chai Vang, 36, of St. Paul, Minn., was arrested about four hours after the shootings as he emerged from the woods with his empty SKS 7.62-mm semiautomatic rifle, a common hunting weapon. No charges had been filed as of Tuesday morning.
Sawyer County Sheriff Jim Meier said the state attorney general's office would prosecute the case because of the severity of it.
Mary Lokken, judicial assistant to Sawyer County Circuit Judge Norman Yackel, said no court appearance was expected Tuesday.
Ms. Lokken said prosecutors' investigators will present a probable cause statement Tuesday in paperwork to Judge Yackel to determine whether there is enough evidence to warrant charges. The judge will review it and set a bail to keep Mr. Vang in jail if warranted, Ms. Lokken said.
An assistant state public defender, Jerry Wright, said he went to the jail Tuesday morning to offer his services, and was told that Mr. Vang has not asked to see an attorney.
Mr. Wright said it was not unusual for probable cause to be determined by a judge based on a sworn affidavit from investigators.
The sheriff told reporters a dispute over Mr. Vang's use of a hunting stand on private property preceded the gunfire.
He said Mr. Vang had gotten lost hunting in thick woods near Birchwood, and when he asked some other hunters for directions, they guided him to a road.
Mr. Vang ended up on 400 acres of private land, found the tree stand unattended and climbed into it to hunt, unaware that the property was private, the sheriff said. The county has thousands of acres of public hunting land, some of it "virtually around" the private property where the shooting occurred, he said.
The sheriff said hunter Terry Willers of Rice Lake saw Mr. Vang and asked him to leave.
He said Mr. Vang complied, and more of Mr. Willers' hunting partners arrived. One member of the group noticed Mr. Vang's identification number on the tag that hunters are required to wear and he wrote it in the dust on an all-terrain vehicle, the sheriff said.
Mr. Meier said it wasn't clear why Vang then started shooting, firing at least 20 shots from the rifle after removing the scope.
"I just don't think any of this makes sense," Mr. Meier said.
Killed were property owner Robert Crotteau, 42; his son Joey, 20; Al Laski, 43; Mark Roidt, 28; and Jessica Willers, 27, all of the Rice Lake area, authorities said.
Denny Drew, 55, of Rice Lake, died Monday at St. Joseph's Hospital in Marshfield, his family announced. The condition of Terry Willers at St. Joseph's Hospital in Marshfield was upgraded Tuesday from serious to fair. And an operator at the Lakeview Medical Center in Rice Lake who declined to give her name said Drew's brother-in-law Lauren Hesebeck had been released after treatment there.
The victims were in a group of 14 or 15 people who made their opening-weekend trip to Crotteau's 400-acre property an annual tradition.
Mr. Vang has no criminal record with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Police in St. Paul said there had been two domestic violence calls to his home in the past year, but both were resolved without incident.
There have been previous clashes between Southeast Asian and white hunters in the region.
In Minnesota, a fistfight once broke out after Hmong hunters crossed onto private land, said Ilean Her, director of the St. Paul-based Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans.
Her said she has heard from some people in St. Paul's Hmong community who said they knew Mr. Vang, though not well. About 24,000 Hmong live in St. Paul, the highest concentration of any U.S. city.
"They said he loves to hunt," Ms. Her said. "He is a hunting zealot."
Michael Yang, a Hmong activist, said various Hmong groups held an emergency meeting Monday to talk about how to respond and avoid a possible backlash. Those at the meeting heard stories from some Hmong hunters about friction with white hunters.
The shooting has already provoked racial tension in an area of Wisconsin where deer hunting is steeped in tradition.
"It's pathetic. They let all these foreigners in here, and they walk all over everybody's property," said Jim Arneberg, owner of the Haugen Inn in nearby Haugen.
State Sen. Mee Moua, one of two Hmong legislators in Minnesota, rejected the idea that cultural differences played any role in the shooting.
Our state bumper sticker for some time was "Wisconsin, You're Among Friends."
Well, when the Hmongs started settling here, there were more than one bumper sticker cropped to say, "Wisconsin, Your mong Friends."
I'll be able to get an answer to this question on Monday morning.
Don't ask.
;-)
This is the first time I've heard of this cultural spouse thing...is this normal up in Wisconsin?
So what happened with this other deer hunter? I haven't heard about this one I don't think. What's the scoop??
"This is the first time I've heard of this cultural spouse thing..."
"Cultural marriage" is just another euphemism for polygamy.
"...is this normal up in Wisconsin?"
Apparently it is among Hmongs.
The 'H' is silent.
Tanks.
"...State Sen. Mee Moua...
That reminds me of the story about the swearing in of newly-elected Minnesota state legislators when Jesse Ventura was governor.
The new legislators identified themselves in a receiving line, and when the U of Minnesota Law School grad said, "Mee Moua", Jesse is said to have responded, "Me Jesse"!"
True story.
If no one has noticed, Jesse was/is a moron.
As were the people that put him office.
I was in a pub in Derry, Northern Ireland, a couple of years ago. Jesse was the Gov, at the time.
My American accent always stands out there, as you can imagine. A local turns to me and asks me where, in America, I'm from. "Minnesota", I reply.
"Aye, ye got that moron wrestler for a gov'ner, do ye?"
He laughed, I nodded and then laughed with him. Told him that he wasn't MY gov and Clinton wasn't my President.
He liked Bill, thought Jesse was a putz.
We still had a good time. Nobody died that night.
Same as "Common Law" wife. Perhaps they don't like the idea of getting government permission to get married? Bunch of anti-government right wing nut jobs....oh wait that's us, isn't it?
Seriously though, if they have some sort of religious or cultural ceremony to cement these marriages, and if the marriage units tend to be stable, save for the addition of more wives, it's probalby a better environment for raising kids than marry-divorce-remarry serial polyamy increasingly practiced by more mainstream folks.
YOu can't judge a whole group by one nutjob.
I'm sure you were, these people are from a culture that is only a generation, well maybe two generations, from a very primitive existence. I'd say stone age, but the would be an exaggeration. I'm sure there customs worked fine for them. Other than the polygamy they don't sound so very different from most preindustrial cultures.
OK, I won't ask. Takes an entire 4 days to answer a question...he's up to sum'in...
I meant to add that the main reason these people are here, and not back home in their hills, is because they fought with us, and when the Commuists took over, they killed many of them, and chased most of the rest out of the country. I figure we own them a little consideration of their cultural differences. None of that excuses this guy's actions (BTW, he was also a Veteran of the US Army and National Guard)
I can get an honest answer on Monday.
At work.
Get it?
I would like to be on that list, please
The headline of the Chicago Tribune today, ( not just 'A' headline, 'THE' banner headline ) was:
SUSPECT: HUNTERS FIRED FIRST
then the subhead:
But cops say he admits chasing victims
Do you see the spin here? It's pretty obvious. The "but..." immediately grants credence to the claim. So we're supposed to think he "overreacted" to being attacked by the "white" hunters. Absolutely despicable.
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