The Other Side of the Story...

This is a most interesting development in this tragic story...

--ryan






Hunter Tells Police He Was Threatened
By STEPHEN KINZER





T. PAUL, Nov. 23 - The Hmong-American man being held
in the killings of six hunters and the wounding of two
others in Wisconsin has told the police that he opened
fire after the hunters had cursed him with racial
epithets and that one of them had shot at him.


The man, Chai Soua Vang, made the statement on Monday
in an interview with police investigators. It was
filed on Tuesday as a court document in Hayward, Wis.,
and it is the first sign of a motive in the case.


Investigators have said the shootings occurred on
Sunday after the hunters came upon Mr. Vang in their
hunting platform on private property in the North
Woods, south of a small town, Meteor. They said just
one gun was found at the scene.


According to the statement, Mr. Vang said several
hunters surrounded him, swore at him and threatened
him after he had climbed down from the platform. He
said that after he had walked about 20 yards from the
hunters, he turned and saw one of them point a rifle
at him.


"Vang immediately dropped to a crouch position, and
the subject shot at Vang," the report said,
summarizing his account. "The bullet hit the ground 30
to 40 feet behind Vang."


"Vang shot two times at the man with the rifle, and
the man dropped to the ground," the report said.


It did not give an explanation why the other victims,
some of whom had raced to the scene in an all-terrain
vehicle, were shot.


The statement said that as Mr. Vang looked down the
trail and saw that a hunter was still standing he
yelled, "You're not dead yet?" and shot again.


No lawyer accompanied Mr. Vang when he made the
statements. The report says he waived his right to
have one present.


Five hunters were killed, and a sixth, Dennis Drew,
died late Monday. Two others were wounded. On Tuesday,
a judge found probable cause to hold Mr. Vang for
trial on six counts of homicide and two counts of
attempted homicide. He set bail at $2.5 million.


Mr. Vang, 36, is a Hmong refugee from Laos who came to
the United States in 1980. He was a truck driver and
lived in St. Paul, a center of the Hmong-American
community. WCCO-TV in Minneapolis reported he was
trained as a sharpshooter in the California National
Guard.


After the incident, fear has surged in the Hmong
community, where police cars stood in front of some
Hmong-owned businesses on Tuesday.


"This is a bad thing for us," a Hmong shopkeeper said.
"I'm a hunter, and I'm afraid to go up there now.
There might be guys who think they should take
revenge."


People walking and shopping on University Avenue and
other streets in the Hmong community were eager to
talk about the tragedy. Few, however, would give their
names.


"You don't know what could happen, not now," a clerk
at the counter of the Wung Lee grocery store said.


The clerk, who had not heard news of Mr. Vang's
statement, said he was convinced that the whole story
behind the shootings had not been told.


"There has to be something else," he said. "Hmong
people don't go out and shoot people. That's not our
nature. We do what we're supposed to do. We don't
cause problems."


A group of prominent Hmong-Americans, eager to
distance their community from the killings and avert a
possible backlash, held a news conference here on
Tuesday. "We stand before you as representatives of
the greater law-abiding Hmong community to
unconditionally - unconditionally - condemn these
atrocities," a spokesman, Cha Vang, said. "What
happened in Wisconsin is in no way representative of
the Hmong people and what they stand for."


Cha Vang is a son of Gen. Vang Pao, probably the
best-known Hmong in the United States. General Vang
Pao commanded the Hmong "secret army" that the Central
Intelligence Agency assembled to fight Communism in
Southeast Asia in the 1960's and 70's.


St. Paul has about 25,000 Hmong, and many enjoy
hunting. By their own accounts, more than a few have
had clashes with whites whose paths they have crossed
in the North Woods.


"They treat you bad," said Ying Vang, executive
director of a Hmong community center. He said whites
hurled racial insults at Hmong-American hunters.


"You don't hear that on the streets of St. Paul," Mr.
Vang said. "But in hunting areas, it's different. It
has happened to me, and also to my father and my
uncle."


"People are afraid there's going to be some kind of
revenge," said Mr. Vang, who is unrelated to the
suspect. "They're saying things like: 'My father hunts
every year. I think I have to convince him not to go
this year.' No one knows what could happen."


One Hmong-American hunter, Dan Thao, 24, a technician,
said that he would continue hunting, "but I'll be more
cautious."


"This is going to put everyone more on edge," Mr. Thao
said.


Ilean Her, executive director of the Council on
Asian-Pacific Minnesotans, an advocacy group here,
said she and members of her board had received hate
mail since Sunday.


"Hmong hunters don't know what the laws are, they
shouldn't be hunting, you don't belong in this
country, go back home, this suspect should be killed
because he's guilty," she said, summarizing the
content of messages she has received.


Ms. Her said although Hmong live peacefully in St.
Paul, they have felt tense hunting in rural areas. She
said she had heard of fights between Hmong and white
hunters.


"The community would say they always knew that
something like this would happen," she said. "They're
shocked that it happened. But at the same time you're
kind of not that surprised."


The publisher of The Hmong Times, a biweekly, Cheu
Lee, said readers were calling him.


"The Hmong community is afraid that Caucasians will
think we are all shooters," Mr. Lee said. "People are
calling to tell me, 'If you write something, write
that we are not all bad.' "