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Author
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Topic: Since when is a racial slur a justification for murder?
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Leonard
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Member # 2
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posted September 10, 2005 11:26 AM
Updated: 12:53 PM EDT
Trial Begins in Case of Hunters' Shootings
By ROBERT IMRIE, AP
HAYWARD, Wis. (Sept. 10) - A Minnesota truck driver who came to Wisconsin to hunt deer last fall got angry after he felt he was insulted, killing six hunters in a rampage that wounded two others, a prosecutor told jurors Saturday.
Chai Soua Vang, a Hmong immigrant, became angry because he felt the white hunters disrespected him and they told him they were going to report him to state game wardens for trespassing, Assistant Attorney General Roy Korte said.
"In the end, it was nothing more than anger," Korte said as he laid out the state's case against Vang, of St. Paul.
Vang's attorneys were expected to give their opening statements later Saturday before the 10-woman, four-man jury picked from Dane County.
Vang, a National Guard veteran and father of six, is charged with six counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder in the Nov. 21 shootings in isolated Sawyer County woods in northwestern Wisconsin. He faces mandatory life in prison if convicted.
The trial, in a courtroom crowded with about 100 people, including friends and relatives of the victims and of Vang, is scheduled to last two weeks.
According to court records, Vang, a deer hunter since 1992 and a military marksman, told investigators he got lost while chasing a wounded deer, went into a tree stand on private land and was asked by Terry Willers to leave. Other hunters arrived, and there was a verbal confrontation.
Vang told authorities the white hunters used racial slurs and profanity before Willers fired the first shot as Vang walked away, and the bullet hit the ground 30 to 40 feet behind him, court records said.
Korte said one victim used profanity and got angry at Vang but never used racial slurs.
Korte said after Willers told Vang to leave, he got a radio call from Robert Crotteau, the property's co-owner, saying he wanted to talk to the trespasser. At that point, a large all-terrain vehicle rushed from a nearby cabin to the tree stand.
"Bob has a few words with the defendant. Tree stands just don't grow out of trees. There's no doubt Bob is mad. And Bob used profanities," Korte said. "The defendant claims Bob used racial slurs. The other people there don't support that theory. No one grabbed him. No one pushed him. No one threatened to shoot him."
The hunters got the number of the deer license tag pinned to Vang's jacket, and Willers traced the number in the dirt covering the ATV.
Korte said witnesses will testify Vang walked a few feet down a trail and took the scope off his rifle. The group got wary, and one hollered, "He's doing something with his gun," Korte said.
Vang swung around and pointed his gun at Willers, who took his gun off his shoulder and pointed it upward, Korte said. Willers yelled at Vang to drop his gun, told him to leave and dove behind a tree, Korte said.
Vang dropped into a crouch and "quickly fired a couple of rounds at Willers, one hitting him in the neck," Korte said. "He is stunned. He can't move. He is lying on his gun, the only gun they have. The defendant didn't stop there. He continued shooting."
Vang fired at least 20 shots, and the group of hunters had only one gun and managed to shoot just once, Korte said. He held up Vang's black rifle that had a magazine that could hold 10 bullets.
"It fires as fast as you can pull the trigger," Korte said.
Four of the victims were shot in the back. One victim ran nearly 500 feet before he was shot, Korte said.
In a letter to a Chicago Tribune reporter from jail, Vang, 36, admitted he shot at a man running from him screaming for help. "Well, I thought he just going run in, get gun and get help and come after me," Vang wrote.
He also wrote that he acted to "defend myself and my race."
Killed were Crotteau, 42; his son Joey Crotteau, 20; Al Laski, 43; Mark Roidt, 28; Willers' daughter Jessica Willers 27; and Dennis Drew, 55, all of the Rice Lake area.
09/10/05 12:47 EDT
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 32361 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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NASA
Knows what it's all about
Member # 177
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posted September 11, 2005 09:51 AM
Self-defense my ass! After he shot the only guy with a gun, he chased the other seven unarmed people thru the woods. He hunted them down and one by one he shot them, reloaded, and shot them again.
Anger? Maybe that's all they call it in SE Asia, but in the USA it's called mass murder. When 2 angry teenagers retalliated for being taunted, it was called the "Columbine High School Massacre".
[ September 11, 2005, 10:08 AM: Message edited by: NASA ]
Posts: 1168 | From: Typical White Person | Registered: Apr 2003
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sporterweight
Knows what it's all about
Member # 189
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posted September 11, 2005 06:13 PM
![[Mad]](mad.gif) Yeap always playing the poor little me, mistreated minority card.
I hope when and if he gets to prison he gets what he has coming.
You go into nature to get away from society's stressful modern day living and run into a luntic,who decides to trespass and make himself at home in your treestand.There just is no punishment bad enough for a person like this,legal punishment that is.ME..
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You got space invaders ?-No
You got pac-man ?-No
You got asteroids ?-No -but dad does -can hardly sit on the toilet somedays.
Posts: 91 | From: Meridian ,Idaho | Registered: Apr 2003
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NASA
Knows what it's all about
Member # 177
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posted September 19, 2005 06:25 AM
They nailed his sorry ass! Guilty on all counts! Trouble is, they probably won't gas the bastid, and he'll spend the rest of his life living off the taxpayers of WI.
Posts: 1168 | From: Typical White Person | Registered: Apr 2003
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted September 19, 2005 08:15 PM
I can't find it now. There was an article about St Paul Hmong that are complaining that they get threatening looks and called names since this deal went down.
As I heard it, these people do not understand the concept of private land, and that is actually at the root of the problems. This trespass thing is quite common with Hmong.
Good hunting. LB
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 32361 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Melvin
Knows what it's all about
Member # 634
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posted September 20, 2005 09:45 AM
Never the less it gives that no good murdering******* the right to kill those people..I hope they hang him by his b****!
Posts: 661 | From: PA. | Registered: Apr 2005
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Randy Buker
Knows what it's all about
Member # 134
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posted September 20, 2005 09:48 AM
The Hmong here in Minnesota don't understand or respect the issues of game laws and private property. They've had a major issue in trying to get them to comply with the laws. We have hired a few liason officers to educate and communicate with them. It is better than it was 20 years ago but not nearly good enough.
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Hunting the Red Fox
www.geocities.com/foxhunter_56308
Posts: 158 | From: Parkers Prairie, MN | Registered: Feb 2003
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