Hunters Gunned Down in WI

By Rachelle Bowden in News on Nov 22, 2004 9:11PM

If we had a site called back-woods-WisconsonIST it would cover this redic shooting, but we don't and Chicagoist is the closest, so here goes - In one of the most bizarro stories of the weekend, a deer hunter in rural Wisconsin shot and killed 5 people and wounded 3 others after he was spotted on private land and as asked to leave.

The suspected shooter was arrested when he came out of the woods yesterday. He's 36-year-old Chai Vang, from Minnesota. We're going to refrain from making any WI and MN jokes, since one Chicagoist.. ahem!.. is a Cheesehead originally, and another reins from the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Any guesses on who's who?

The story so far seems to go like this: a group of hunters was out in the woods when one spotted someone in their tree stand. (loving how the media is going to great lengths to explain WHAT a tree stand is!). The group of hunters approached the man and asked him to leave. The man got down from the tree stand and was walking away, but then for some reason turned around an opened fire on the group. One hunter radioed for help and as people came to help they were shot. Luckily someone in the group wrote down the suspect's hunting license number in the dirt on an ATV (kind of like how you wrote "Clean Me" on your brother's car). One deputy said that the suspect was "chasing after them and killing them" with a semiautomatic rifle, which is commonly used for hunting

Roughly 20 shots were fired but just like the old Revolutionary War, no one knows who fired first, or even if the group of hunters fired at all. There was only one gun found among the 8 people who were killed and wounded, so no matter what, some unarmed people were fired upon.

The suspect, out of ammunition and without a compass, got lost in the woods. Two other hunters who had no idea about the shootings helped him find his way out. When he emerged he was arrested.

Bizzaro. Don't know what else to say.