Posted on 01/07/2007 5:54:45 PM PST by SmithL
Green Bay -- A Hmong hunter has been found dead in a wildlife area in a case that is stirring memories of a mass shooting that exposed racial tensions.
Cha Vang, 30, of Green Bay, was found dead Saturday morning, a night after he was reported missing in the Peshtigo Harbor Wildlife Area in northeastern Wisconsin. Investigators have not said how they believe he died but said they are treating the case as a homicide. An autopsy is planned for Monday.
Authorities detained a 28-year-old Peshtigo man, James Nichols, who showed up at a medical center Saturday with a gunshot wound that wasn't life-threatening, said Laurel Steffes, a spokeswoman for the Marinette County Sheriff's Department. He is considered a person of interest but was being held on a parole violation from an unrelated burglary conviction and had not been charged in Vang's death, she said.
Dealings between the Hmong, an ethnic minority group from Southeast Asia, and predominantly white residents of the mostly rural north woods have been on edge since November 2004, when Hmong immigrant Chai Soua Vang, 38, of St. Paul, Minn., killed six white hunters and injured two while trespassing in a private tree stand.
Chai Vang claimed he acted in self-defense after they shouted racial epithets, cursed at him and one fired a shot in his direction. The former truck driver is serving multiple life terms.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Since SJackson was replying to post #7 about the Chai Vang incident of two years ago, the link and label are accurate. Labeling it as "incidents" isn't.
Have you looked at the link? It has both incidents. Whether or not it was a response to comment 7, the fact is that the link was not about only one of them. A link to one article about the appropriate Vang would have been.
Yes, I did. And they're all about the 2004 murders by Chai Vang, not the recently deceased Cha Vang.
That's crap. The Hmong fought a war for us over in Laos, in case you have forgotten. And they deserve both our respect and our hospitality.
Not worth arguing about a link, especially not that we have both a Chai Vang and a Cha Vang. An off coincidence
Hunter accused of threats reaches deal
Charges followed dispute with landowner
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1764263/posts
Associated Press
A hunter accused of threatening a property owner last September reached a deferred prosecution agreement in a case that the defense says was blown out of proportion in the wake of the Chai Soua Vang murder case in northern Wisconsin.
Chuetoua Lor, who allegedly pointed his gun at the other man's legs during the dispute, pleaded no contest Thursday to first-degree reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct.
Under the agreement, the endangerment charge will be dropped if Chuetoua Lor, 37, of Appleton, stays out of trouble for two years. He will serve a year of probation on the disorderly conduct charge and loses his hunting privileges during that time.
His lawyer noted the charges came in the aftermath of the fatal shootings of six white hunters by another Hmong hunter, Chai Soua Vang, in Sawyer County during the November 2004 deer hunt. Chai Soua Vang, 38, of St. Paul, is serving multiple life terms on homicide charges, plus more prison time for wounding two others.
"People understand that this was really blown way out of proportion and was a knee-jerk reaction because of the other case," said Chuetoua Lor's lawyer Jeff Oswald.
The criminal complaint said Chuetoua Lor was hunting for small game in the town of Liberty when a homeowner confronted him after hearing a shot fired near his house.
Chuetoua Lor told the man a neighboring property owner gave him permission to hunt there, but the landowner told Chuetoua Lor he was on his land and should leave, the complaint said.
The property owner went inside but heard another shot and confronted Chuetoua Lor again, according to the complaint. This time, the two argued, Chuetoua Lor pointed his gun at the man's legs and made him state that Chuetoua Lor was not a liar, the complaint said. Once the man did so, Chuetoua Lor allegedly made him walk backward to his house.
A manhunt ended when Chuetoua Lor was located at his home.
Assistant District Attorney Melinda Tempelis noted at Thursday's hearing that Chuetoua Lor has no prior criminal record. She said the victim and the victim's family felt the deferred prosecution agreement was appropriate.
Chuetoua Lor, a longtime Appleton resident, gave a statement, with his wife translating.
"It is a blessing from God to be living in this country and to receive this fair (treatment)," he said.
Former Appleton Mayor Dorothy Johnson has been among Chuetoua Lor's supporters and was with those surrounding him after he was sentenced.
"What happened was right," she said of the sentencing agreement.
From that article:
Whoever killed a Hmong hunter in a Marinette County public hunting area took pains to conceal the body, the sheriff said Sunday.
In custody on a probation-parole violation from a previous case. The sheriff said Nichols' story has "changed three or four times."
Searchers with a tracking dog could not find Cha Vang, 30, Friday night after his hunting companions reported him missing. Shortly after the search resumed Saturday morning, Vang's body was found concealed in the Peshtigo Harbor Wildlife Area, though Marinette County Sheriff James Kanikula declined to say how the body was hidden.
And minutes after authorities learned that Vang had disappeared, local hospital officials reported that a man had arrived in the emergency room with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the hand. Hospitals are required to notify law enforcement of any firearms-related injuries.
It didn't take detectives long to make what they say is a connection between the two shootings. James A. Nichols, 28, of Peshtigo was held on a probation-parole violation after his hand was treated. According to online state court records, Nichols was convicted in Marinette County of several felony burglary charges in 1996.
"We got a missing hunter. We got a guy in the hospital with a gunshot wound to his hand. He showed up a half-hour after we got this call that we've got a missing hunter," said Kanikula, who was sworn in last week.
"The long and short of it is our investigators are sharp. They went to talk to this guy. His story changed three or four times. It's just a matter of good investigation."
-------------------------------------------------------
So it seems that Nichols might have been trying to make a claim of self-defense, but got his story mixed up?
"The long and short of it is our investigators are sharp."
Musta bin som sorta fellar like Columbo to make sense a all them there clues!
Me too.
Thanks. I believe Ray Halbritter is the current Chief of the Oneida. Smart man.
And there are people who are still amazed that our ally, the Americans, would betray them and steal our land in New York (that little smidgeon of an Oneida Revolutionary War scout in me speaking out).
Hunter acted in fear, says fiancée
He stabbed man after being shot in hands, she says
Marinette - The fiancée of a squirrel hunter arrested after the weekend death of a Green Bay hunter said Tuesday that he told her he was shot in both hands by the other man during a confrontation and ended up stabbing the man.
Dacia James, 20, said James A. Nichols called her Friday after the encounter in the Peshtigo Harbor Wildlife Area.
"Jim got shot once in his right hand and then he got shot once in his left hand and then they fought," James said Tuesday night from her Marinette home. "All Jim told me was that he stabbed the guy and he didn't know if he killed the guy."
Nichols, 28, was arrested after he showed up at Bay Area Medical Center in Marinette shortly before 7 p.m. for treatment of the wounds. James, who met Nichols several years ago, said Nichols was afraid for his life during the confrontation.
"He was terrified. He didn't know what to do or what was going to happen," James said.
Nichols told her he was walking through the area looking up at the trees for squirrels when he met up with Cha Vang, 30, of Green Bay, a Hmong father of five who emigrated from a Thai refugee camp two years ago.
James said Nichols told her, "I had this guy come up behind me and I told him he was molesting my hunt and scaring the squirrels away, go find someplace else to hunt. He couldn't speak English, and he started yelling."
On Monday, Vang's family said that Cha Vang was a kind person who helped others. They said he didn't speak English and that it's unlikely he could provoke anyone.
Nichols was remorseful about Vang's death, James said.
"He was really upset about that. He was terrified for himself and he was terrified for the other guy."
Thanks for the update. Not sure how easy it would be to stab a guy after being shot in both hands - but possible I guess. And the part about not knowing if the guy was dead or not - but the cops finding the body concealed doesn't add up. Unless the dying guy covered himself up 'cuz he was cold.
And as a felon he isn't allowed to carry a gun - was he squirrel hunting with his knife?
Sorry! Couldn't resist lightening the mood a little bit. :)
As usual, a case like this doesn't add up until the very end. Stay tuned!
lol
LOL! That was unexpected. :)
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