hunting tragedy (article)

[Darkcobra]

I definitely think that we are missing a "chunk" of information. A SKS holds 10 rounds, why you would load 10 rounds when hunting? Let alone be illegal for hunting (I remember reading that a hunting rifle cannot hold more than 2 or 5 rounds in the magazine?). I would have to say that he was a pretty good shot to injure/kill 8 people with 10 rounds. I doubt the other hunters were just standing still waiting for their turn to be killed? I would think the others would have running away, especially if there were unarmed... Supposedly only one of the hunters had a rifle with them?

 

[raggie33]

sks can hold way mnore then 10 rounds i belive they have like 120 round thingys for em ,a couree im nut a gun person so i may be wrong

 

[Flatscan]

I read that the shooter claims that one of the victims fired first while he was walking away, hitting the ground 30-40yds behind him (I read this as between the group and the shooter), a deliberate miss. Therefore, fearing for his life, he returned fire.

Assuming that the beginning of the story is true, I find it implausible that he could turn and aim and fire and hit before whoever had fired first could take real aim and fire again.

 

[BIGIRON]

I, too, am waiting for the rest of the story.

 

[Wolfen]

This just gets me. So sad.

 

[Wits' End]

[ QUOTE ]
iseethelight said:
Hmm... like racism is unheard of in Minnesota... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif


[/ QUOTE ]
Pardon me but this incident was in Wisconsin, though I don't know of any state that is free of racism.
Suspect in Wisconsin hunter deaths says he was fired at first

[ QUOTE ]
But Vang told Sawyer County investigators he began firing only after one of Hesebeck's hunting buddies, Terry Willers, shot at him with a rifle from about 100 feet away and missed.

Vang claimed he was taunted by racial slurs by the hunters who ordered him off the land and also warned that he would be reported to law enforcement, according to a document filed Tuesday in Sawyer County Circuit Court.

Hesebeck's version, contained in the same probable cause statement, makes no mention of that type of language or verbal hostility, other than saying Vang used profanity at one point.

Hesebeck, who was released from a hospital Tuesday after treatment for a shoulder wound, told investigators Willers shot at Vang after Vang fired first but missed.

Both accounts agreed on what happened next, with Vang shooting the others as more people from the deer camp arrived at the scene after Hesebeck used a walkie talkie to call for help.
..............

New details about Vang began to emerge Tuesday.

Military records obtained by The Associated Press show he spent six years in the California National Guard and earned a sharpshooter qualification badge. But his primary role during his time in the Guard, from 1989-95, involved clerical duties.

After his discharge, he spent two more years in the Individual Ready Reserve.

Dov Schwartz, an Army spokesman in Washington, said the sharpshooter qualification was "not an extraordinarily special thing."

According to investigators in Wisconsin, it's believed Vang fired at least 20 shots in the incident

..................
In the aftermath of the shootings, a Hmong leader in Eau Claire advised other Hmong hunters to skip the rest of the gun deer season because of heightened tensions.

"We don't know who will be thinking what. I just think it would be best to let people cool off," said Joe Bee Xiong, director of the Eau Claire Area Hmong Mutual Assistance Association, as reported by the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram in Tuesday's edition. The group had held an emergency meeting Monday night.

Xiong, who hunted for deer last weekend, said he has heard of conflicts between white and Hmong hunters in the past, including the case of a Hmong bow hunter who reported this fall having at least two white hunters point guns at him.



[/ QUOTE ]

Shooting suspect had Army sharpshooting badge

Damage control: Minnesota Hmong reach out after hunter shootings

 

[Darkcobra]

I continued to read other articles and it says that the bodies of the victims were found far from each other, one of them being 100 yards away. The "shooter" actually hunted them down, some victims had multiple wounds. Sad /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jpshakehead.gif

SKS is sold with a fixed 10 round magazine. You can change it so it can use detachable higher capacity magazine, but why would he need that for hunting? Then again, what was he doing with all that ammo? Some hunters I know only carry 5-6 rounds on them, if that!?!?

 

[vtunderground]

This is a real tragedy. I got really upset when I first heard about this... I go hunting on public game lands almost every day (shot my first deer on Saturday), and my uncle was shot by another hunter when he was around my age (.30-30 to the head from 25 yards, he's been half paralyzed ever since). I really feel for the families of the murdered hunters.

"...he continued shooting and at one point chased one of the men and shot him in the back, only to find the man had no gun..."

There's no excuse for this.

 

[iseethelight]

[ QUOTE ]
vtunderground said:
"...he continued shooting and at one point chased one of the men and shot him in the back, only to find the man had no gun..."

There's no excuse for this.

[/ QUOTE ]

From CNN.com:
[ QUOTE ]
"...according to Vang's version of events, the suspect had started to walk away as the group of hunters summoned by the first man surrounded him, and one of the men began to call him names. After he was 100 feet away, Vang said, he saw one of the men, who had a rifle, take it off his shoulder. Vang said the man shot at him but missed."

[/ QUOTE ]

 

[Freedom1955]

[/ QUOTE ]
Suspect in Wisconsin hunter deaths says he was fired at first

According to investigators in Wisconsin, it's believed Vang fired at least 20 shots in the incident

..................

Shooting suspect had Army sharpshooting badge

Damage control: Minnesota Hmong reach out after hunter shootings

[/ QUOTE ]


I used to hunt deer and I did it for about 15 years up here in Michigan. I can tell you this I've seen or heard of any deer hunter carrying that much ammunition.
Why did he have so much ammunition on him? It does not make any sense.

I also see that they are trying to link Vang with another hunters murder up there back in 2001.

 

[kongfuchicken]

The hunter's story seems to have changed; they now claime they did shoot at Vang but not first.

[ QUOTE ]
Flatscan said:
Assuming that the beginning of the story is true, I find it implausible that he could turn and aim and fire and hit before whoever had fired first could take real aim and fire again.

[/ QUOTE ]

Unfortunatly, it seems that with his military background, this senario is becoming more plausible, especially as the hunters may have had a false illusion of safety in their superior numbers and might not have been worried until he actuallty shot back. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[Wolfen]

How does anyone know if the hunter's story has changed? Because newspaper and electronic media now have changed their story?

Or can it be that investigators were able to do a more in depth interview with the surviving victims and released some more details to the media?

 

[turbodog]

[ QUOTE ]
MLong said:



[/ QUOTE ]
Suspect in Wisconsin hunter deaths says he was fired at first

According to investigators in Wisconsin, it's believed Vang fired at least 20 shots in the incident

..................

Shooting suspect had Army sharpshooting badge

Damage control: Minnesota Hmong reach out after hunter shootings

[/ QUOTE ]


I used to hunt deer and I did it for about 15 years up here in Michigan. I can tell you this I've seen or heard of any deer hunter carrying that much ammunition.
Why did he have so much ammunition on him? It does not make any sense.

I also see that they are trying to link Vang with another hunters murder up there back in 2001.

[/ QUOTE ]

Most everyone in my hunting camp carries 30+ rounds with them. But, we live in the most highly populated deer area of the state. When 20 hunters go out on a drive, it's typical to come back with 7-8 deer... and there are 3 drives per day along with still hunting in the evening.

Sounds like dude made a baaaad judgement call, took it too far, and tried to kill everyone in a panic to cover it all up.

 

[lunardelite]

The tragedy is that we will never know what really caused this. I mean we know the basic details (dude gets lost, climbs a tree stand, people tell him to leave, he kills them) but where are the meaty details. I mean why did the hunters radio for more people to come? Was the dude provoked with racial slurs and did he feel threaten when he was shot at? I think the local media really is trying to play down the racial aspect of this which i think is totally irresponsible. I mean midwesterners are nice - but they ain't angels.

 

[cheesehead]

I'd have to agree, I can't imagine that they would say "sir, can you please come out of that tree stand?" and then that triggers him to blow all their heads off.

I'm not a hunter, but I think you'd feel threatened if you are shot at, especially by people you don't know. Sure, your friends can take a few shots at you and that's ok,...

 

[Minjin]

We're talking about this incident on one of my other forums. Some people are actually defending the guy, saying that he was protecting himself from racial slurs...

Let me just clear something up to the people who haven't read all the news reports. He hunted down and tried to kill 8 people, some of whom were running away, one of which was a little girl, and only ONE was armed. Go read his own statements to the police.


The missing chunk is that the guy is nuts. Name calling or shooting in the air doesn't justify cold blooded murder.

Mark

 

[cheesehead]

Obviously, he went bananas, he's a nutjob, but I don't think the other hunters were all sweet as pie either. Seems like they did fire a shot towards him and that took him over the edge. Depressing sad story.

 

[vtunderground]

[ QUOTE ]
Minjin said:
The missing chunk is that the guy is nuts.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I think that's what this all comes down to.


"...One of the hunters was shouting, "help me, help me," but Vang said he chased him and shot him in the back..."

"...Vang said when he returned to the site where the shootings began, he saw one of the men still standing. "You're not dead yet?" Vang said he asked the man. He then shot in the man's direction but doesn't know if the man was hit..." (cnn.com)


Just from his own account of the shootings, Vang sounds like a pretty sick individual.

 

[Wolfen]

[ QUOTE ]
cheesehead said:
Obviously, he went bananas, he's a nutjob, but I don't think the other hunters were all sweet as pie either. Seems like they did fire a shot towards him and that took him over the edge. Depressing sad story.

[/ QUOTE ]
Cheesehead is there an article where one of the witnesses or victim's is quoted as saying that Vang was fired at first? Or are you going by Vangs statement, which has been in the paper?

This case has piqued my interest not so much for what has happened as people's reaction to what has happened.

 

[chiphead]

The deer have nothing to fear this season.

chiphead