Wisconsin shootings kill 5
Terry Collins, Chuck Haga, Larry Oakes, Chao Xiong and Richard Meryhew, Star Tribune
November 22, 2004 HUNTERS1122
the suspect
At least five people were killed and three wounded in a multiple shooting in northwestern Wisconsin Sunday afternoon. After a confrontation over the use of a deer stand, a 36-year-old St. Paul man apparently chased some of the victims through a heavily wooded area, authorities said.
Chai Soua Vang, 36, was arrested early Sunday evening in Sawyer County, Wis., said Sawyer County Sheriff's Deputy Jake Hodgkinson. Vang lives on St. Paul's East Side, police spokesman Paul Schnell said.
Vang was being held in the Sawyer County Jail in Hayward.
Tim Zeigle, chief deputy for the Sawyer County Sheriff's Department, said Sunday night that four men and one woman were among the dead.
Zeigle said the bodies were found "a long way from each other," indicating the killer chased them down after the initial confrontation and as several hunters came to assist their colleagues.
Investigators found two bodies next to each other, with a third 50 yards away, the fourth 75 yards from the third and the final body 100 yards from the fourth, Zeigle said.
They were killed with an SKS assault-style rifle, he added.
"He was picking them off," Zeigle said, adding that some were shot more than once. "He was chasing after them and killing them."
Authorities were still working on the crime scene late Sunday night.
Two of the victims were identified by friends Sunday as Robert Crotteau, about 41, and his son, Joey, about 20.
"This is not supposed to happen to people you know," said Mark Miller, owner of Fat Man's, a Rice Lake tavern where Robert Crotteau often stopped by for lunch.
Miller also believed two others who were killed were a father and daughter.
Crotteau owned a concrete company in town, said longtime Rice Lake City Council Member Marv Thompson said.
"They're a good family," Thompson said. "They're decent people. Deer hunting is real big in their family and a lot of households around here."
Zeigle said that a man dressed in hunting clothes was occupying a tree stand on private property around noon Sunday. He did not have permission to hunt on the land and was asked by a group of deer hunters to leave.
After one man was shot, he used a walkie-talkie to contact others in his party nearby that he needed help. When members of his party came out, they also were shot, Zeigle said.
Roads near the scene were closed to all traffic, including ambulances, as authorities from sheriff's departments in Sawyer, Rusk and Barron counties were involved in the manhunt.
According to broadcast reports, the man then fled into the woods and came upon another hunter who was able to tell him how to get out.
When he got out, he was met by a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources officer who contacted police.
Officers arrested Vang without incident. His rifle was empty.
Zeigle said authorities were notified of the shootings shortly after noon, when one of the members hunting party stopped at a gas station in the city of Birchwood while taking one of the victims to the hospital.
The caller said simply, "There were five people dead in the woods," Zeigle said.
Deputies were immediately dispatched to the scene and found the bodies in the brush. The injured were taking to hospitals. At that point, authorities started their search for Vang, taking to county roads and the air hoping to find him.
One of the hunters had given authorities Vang's "tag number," which identifies deer hunters when they get their licenses. The hunter had written the number down during the confrontation that sparked the shooting.
'Prayed for safe hunt'
Three wounded men were taken to Lakeview Medical Center in Rice Lake, Wis. One of the victims, Denny Drew, had surgery and was in serious condition, said Jennifer Greshowak, the hospital's director of community relations. Another, Lauren Hesebeck, also had surgery and he was in fair condition.
A third victim was flown to a trauma center in Marshfield, Wis., and is listed in critical condition.
Hesenbeck's wife, Theresa Hesenbeck, who also is Drew's sister, said Sunday night that she learned about the shootings shortly after leaving church, where she had "prayed for a safe hunt."
Drew was shot in the stomach. The bullet went in one side and out the other, family members said. They added that Lauren Hesenbeck was shot in the arm and the bullet exited through his back.
The shootings happened in Meteor Township in southwestern Sawyer County, between the cities of Birchwood and Exeland.
The Drew and Hesebeck family said in a statement Sunday that they "certainly appreciate the thoughts and prayer of this close-knit community and encourage you to think and pray for the other families involved."
Wisconsin's statewide deer gun hunting season started Saturday and lasts for nine days.
Miller said he used to play fast-pitch softball with Robert Crotteau and his brothers. Miller said he brought a car this spring from Denny Drew, "and Lauren Hesenbeck rode with me to put gas in it. It's a small town and everybody knows everybody.
"It's going to be strange working [today]. It's all that people will be talking about."
The arrested man, Vang, lives in an aging, two-story house on St. Paul's lower East Side.
He and his family apparently moved into the neighborhood earlier this year, said John Black, a lifelong resident of the neighborhood who lives across the street.
Black and his wife, Cheryl, said Sunday night that the family pretty much kept to themselves, rarely interacting with neighbors. They said they never spoke with the man, but described him as "real clean-cut" and "nicely dressed."
John Black said he believed there were several children living in the home, but added that he didn't know how many there were or what their relation to Vang might be.
"We never had any problems with them," Black, 56, said. "We never heard a peep out of those guys to be honest with you. We're floored. What would take a guy to that point?"
John Black said he was watching a football game sometime after 3:30 p.m. Sunday when he noticed some commotion outside and saw several unmarked police cars pull up in front of Vang's house.
"They wouldn't tell us anything," said Black, who eventually found out what was going on from a TV cameraman.
At one point, Black said, police led a woman from the house, shielding her from cameras by covering her face with a blanket.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
