Five in Ill-Fated Hunting Party are Declared Carnegie Heroes

(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 the instructions of the late steel mogul Andrew Carnegie to recognize and assist North American civilians who put their lives on the line to save others.

Vang, 37, was sentenced to life in prison for killing six deer hunters and wounding two after they confronted him for trespassing. A jury rejected his self-defense claims after he testified that some of the hunters, though unarmed, deserved to die because they disrespected him.

Those honored included Jessica Willers, of Green Bay, Wis., and Allan Laski, of Haugen, Wis., who were shot and killed by Vang as they sped toward the scene on an ATV after hearing shots, including one that wounded Willers' father, Terry Willers, who lay bleeding in the woods. Jessica Willers was 27, and Laski was 43.

"Wisconsin Heroes" Ping!

Also honored was Lauren Hesebeck, 50, of Rice Lake, Wis., who although he had been shot, helped his wounded friends and eventually returned Vang's fire with Terry Willers' rifle, causing Vang to flee.

"I don't think of myself as a hero -- that's a title other people give you," Hesebeck said Thursday in a telephone interview. "I just did what I felt I had to do at the time." Still, said Hesebeck, "it's quite an honor, and I'm happy about it."

Carter Crotteau, 20, of Haugen, was awarded a medal for rushing from the group's cabin, ignoring the danger as he helped move Terry Willers to safety and check his father, Robert Crotteau, 42, and his brother, Joey Crotteau, 20, for a pulse. He discovered that both were dead. Carter Crotteau, who was 18 at the time, is now a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

The late Dennis Roux, of Rice Lake, was awarded a medal for riding in the back of a pickup through the shooting scene while moving Hesebeck and Dennis Drew, 55, to safety and giving first aid to Drew, who died the next day. Roux died of a heart attack less than a year later, at 64, according to Hesebeck.

"Like every person awarded the Carnegie Medal, these people risked their lives to an extraordinary degree, saving or attempting to save the life of another person," said Doug Chambers, director of external affairs for the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission. Chambers said the 21-member commission became aware of the Wisconsin hunters' heroism through news accounts and followed up with an investigation by commission staff.

He said the commission was assisted greatly by Roy Korte, an assistant attorney general for Wisconsin, who supplied police reports and other documentation.

Korte said Thursday that the five deserved the medals, and he was happy they were chosen.

The five were among 25 people from the United States and Canada whose awards were announced Thursday, bringing to 92 the number of recipients this year and 9,053 since the fund's inception in 1904. Each of the recipients --or families of recipients in the case of those who died -- receive $5,000 in addition to the medal.

Hesebeck said Thursday that as part of "trying to get on with life," he went deer hunting again this year. But he said, "it wasn't the same, and it never will be."

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