- Americans Pay The Price of Uncontrolled Immigration
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- "Killed were Robert Crotteau, 42; his son Joey Crotteau,
20; Al Laski, 43; Mark Roidt, 28; Terry Willers' daughter Jessica Willers
27; and Dennis Drew, 55, all from the Rice Lake area."
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- "The Crotteaus, Laski and Jessica Willers were all
shot in the back - the younger Crotteau, four times, the complaint said."
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- Vietnam Veteran Dennis Drew, 55, who served in the Army,
was a father of three. He had been raised on a dairy farm. He was one of
those killed by IMMIGRANT Chai Vang.
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- The Janesville Gazette - Janesville, Wisconsin, USA
- http://www.gazettextra.com/huntersshot113004.asp
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- Man charged in Wisconsin hunter
slayings makes court appearance
- By Robert Imrie
Associated Press
11-30-4
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- HAYWARD, Wis. - A Minnesota
man accused of fatally shooting six deer hunters in the woods of northern
Wisconsin appeared in a makeshift courtroom Tuesday a day after charges
were filed against him.
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- During a brief five-minute hearing held in a basement
classroom at the Sawyer County Sheriff's Department, Chai Vang, 36, of
St. Paul, waived his right to a preliminary hearing within 10 days and
one was set instead for Dec. 29.
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- The criminal complaint filed Monday said the hunters
managed to shoot back once - maybe twice - after a confrontation about
trespassing.
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- Two survivors told investigators no one in their group
pointed a gun at the Hmong immigrant before he opened fire in an assault
that had four of the victims shot in the back, according to the complaint.
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- He was charged in Sawyer County Circuit Court with six
counts of first-degree intentional homicide, each carrying a life prison
term, and two counts of attempted murder.
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- Defense attorney Steven Kohn said Vang was mentally competent
to understand the charges against him and participate in proceedings in
the case.
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- The hearing was held in a basement classroom because
the sheriff could not make the courthouse secure without massive efforts,
Judge Norman Yackel said.
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- The judge read the charges and asked Vang if he understood
them.
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- "Yes," replied the handcuffed defendant, who
was wearing an orange jail jump suit and shackles on his legs.
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- Vang told the judge he was not under the influence of
drugs. Yackel also asked Vang about his education, and he said he gone
to a two-year college.
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- Bond remained at $2.5 million, but Kohn said he reserved
the right to address that issue later.
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- The defense attorney declined after the hearing to discuss
the case or describe Vang's emotional state.
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- The criminal complaint said Vang, a deer hunter since
1992, told investigators the other hunters used racial slurs and profanity
as they told him to leave, and they fired the first shot at him - suggesting
he acted in self-defense.
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- The killings occurred in southern Sawyer County Nov.
21 - the second day of the state's nine-day gun deer season.
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- The criminal complaint said Vang told investigators he
fired 10 to 13 shots from his semiautomatic rifle, and the victims fired
at him twice - including the first shot when he was walking away after
being told he was trespassing on private land.
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- But two survivors, Terry Willers and Lauren Hesebeck,
indicated only one shot was fired at Vang - by Hesebeck, who was already
wounded, the complaint said. Hesebeck said he fired only after he was shot
in the shoulder trying to dodge bullets fired by Vang. By then, he said,
some of his friends lay mortally wounded on the ground.
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- Vang said at one point he saw one of the hunters still
standing, yelled "You're not dead yet?", shot one more time and
ran away down an ATV trail, the complaint said.
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- The criminal complaint indicates investigators found
only one rifle at the scene of the killings.
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- Vang still had his empty rifle when he was arrested several
hours after the shooting as another hunter helped him find his way out
of the woods.
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- Killed were Robert Crotteau, 42; his son Joey Crotteau,
20; Al Laski, 43; Mark Roidt, 28; Terry Willers' daughter Jessica Willers
27; and Dennis Drew, 55, all from the Rice Lake area.
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- Terry Willers, 47, who worked with Crotteau in Crotteau's
construction business, and Hesebeck, 48, who worked with Drew at a car
business, were released from the hospital last week.
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- The Crotteaus, Laski and Jessica Willers were all shot
in the back - the younger Crotteau, four times, the complaint said.
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- The final two funerals for the victims were held Monday,
with family and friends paying tribute to Jessica Willers and Drew in separate
services.
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- A week's passage did little to heal the community's wounds
from the shootings, the Rev. Jim Powers said in his homily at Willers'
service.
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- "Most of us are just as confused and lost and stunned
as we were when we first heard about it," Powers told several hundred
mourners. "We need to work through this and we need to help others
work through it."
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- At a different church later Monday, mourners spilled
out onto the steps outside to pay respects to Drew, a father of three who
was raised on a dairy farm, served in the Army in Vietnam and returned
to the area to raise his family.
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- Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager, whose office is
prosecuting the case, refused Monday to address specific questions about
it.
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- She also declined to say whether the state was looking
into a possible connection between Vang and the unsolved killing of another
hunter three years ago.
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- In that case, a 37-year-old Medford man was shot in the
back twice as he hunted alone on family land about 80 miles from last week's
shootings.
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