More details emerge about the shooting

Chai Vang is now telling his side of the story about what happened when a group of hunters approached him about trespassing on their land and using their tree stand. I was hoping it wasn't going to be something like this.

Vang told investigators the hunters surrounded him, and some started calling him racial slurs. The statement quotes him as saying he started walking away but looked back. Vang said he saw the first hunter point his rifle at him and then fire a shot that hit the ground 30 to 40 feet behind him.

Vang told investigators that's when he started firing at the group.

Okay, if someone spoke to me in threatening language and then fired a gun toward me, I'd probably run like hell. Vang was in the army, and I suspect that "fire back" instinct may have kicked in.

But that still doesn't explain why he shot and killed six people, picking some of them off as they arrived on the scene. We're told only one of the hunters was armed.

I suspect the hunting party's story will be slightly different.


UPDATE: WCCO TV has copies of Vang's statement on their website. The statement is in two parts. Here, and here. A "must read" if you want Vang's statement unfiltered. More later.


UPDATE II: Here are a few segments of the report from the investigator (found at the links in the previous paragraph). And I'll just note that it's pretty explicit, though not particularly gruesome.

Reports indicated that the Asian male wandered onto property owned by Terry Willers and Robert Crotteau. The Asian male was located sitting in a tree stand on the private property. The Asian male was confronted by Terry Willers and told by Willers to leave the property. Willers used a Walkie Talkie to advise the rest of the hunting party that were located at the cabin that Willers told the subject to leave and Willers was going to wait and make sure the subject left.

Here's Hesebeck's account which matches most of the news reports so far, but goes into a bit more detail:

Lauren Hesebeck was able to provide the following information. At this point Robert Crotteau, Joe Crotteau, Lauren Hesebeck, Dennis Drew, and Mark Roidt left the cabin and went to Willers location. During another verbal exchange with the Asian male one of the members of the property owner's party wrote the back tag number of the Asian male subject in the dirt on a "mule" which is a 2 side-by-side seat ATV. The back tag number that was written down was XXXXXXX. The Asian male was also advised that law enforcement waas going to be called.

. . .

Vang started to walk away and got approximately 40 yards away. Then Vang appeared to remove the scope from his rifle and turned around and started shooting. Vang shot several times and hit Willers. Prior to being shot, Willers returned fire but did not hit Vang. Vang shot several more shots and struck Dennis Drew and Mark Roidt. Lauren Hesebeck attempted to hide behind the "mule" but Vang moved around the "mule" and shot Lauren Hesebeck in the shoulder. Robert and Joe Crotteau ran away from the scene. Vang then pursued Robert and Joe. Both Robert and Joe were located away from the initial scene and had been shot to death.

While Vang was pursuing Robert and Joe, Lauren Hesebeck was able to call on the Walkie Talkie to the cabin and advised that he had been shot and needed help. Help arrived and removed Terry Willers from the scene. A short time later Lauren heard another ATV approaching and then heard more gun shot. Lauren advised that Vang then appeared again where the shooting originally started. Lauren Hesebeck heard Vang say something like "One of you f****** are still alive." Lauren Hesebeck indicated that he returned fire at that time but is unsure how many times.

Vang's account begins by describing how he got lost and found the deer stand on the private property, so he climbed up onto it. About 15 minutes later, Willers approached and told him that he was on private property. Vang climbed down and started walking away only to find himself confronted by the group. Vang's account adds the detail of the words that were exchanged.

Vang stated that this man stated "You just trespassed through 400 acres of private land. Vang stated that the others in the group surrounded Vang. Vang stated that the man Vang thought to be the owner then started calling Vang names like "gook, chink, f****** Asian." Vang stated that at this point the only one Vang saw with a gun was the first subject that kicked Vang out of the stand.

Vang stated that Vang was told to get off the f****** property and never come back. Vang stated that at one point they wrote down his license number and stated that they were going to call the law enforcement. Vang stated that some of the others in the group started calling Vang names (gook, chink) and were also swearing at Vang. Vang stated that Vang started walking away and got approximately 20 yards away and turned around and observed the man that had the rifle walking towards the rest of the group. Vang also observed the man take the rifle off his shoulder and took the rifle into his hands. Vang stated that Vang was approximated 100 feet away and looked back again. Vang stated that Vang observed the subject with the rifle point the rifle at Vang. Vang stated that Vang immediately dropped to a crouch position and the subject shot at Vang and the bullet hit the ground 30 to 40 feet behind Vang.

Vang stated that Vang removed the scope from his rifle. Vang stated that Vang shot 2 times at the man with the rifle and the man dropped to the ground. Vang saw all the others run toward the ATV's and Vang continued to shoot. Vang stated that 2 or 3 more men fell to the ground. Vang stated that a couple of the men started to run. Vang stated that Vang chased after one of the men that ran towards the cabin. Vang stated that the man was yelling "Help me, help me." Vang stated that Vang shot at the man several times while chasing him. Vang stated that he got to about 15 to 20 feet of the man who was still running away and Vang shot him in the back. Vang stated that the man dropped to the ground. Vang stated that the man did not have a gun. Vang stated that Vang walked up to the man and heard the man groan and then Vang walked away. . . .

Vang stated that at this point Vang heard one of the other men call on the Walkie Talkie and state "We've been shot and need help." Vang stated that Vang observed 3 other subjects coming on an ATV. Vang stated that Vang then turned his reversible coat from orange to camo. Vang stated that he also reloaded his magazine with 5 or 6 bullets. Vang stated that Vang did not shoot at these men because they had guns with them. Vang stated that the men were in by the other injured men for less than a minute and then left. Vang did not know if the men took any of the wounded out with them.

Vang stated that Vang then observed another ATV coming with 2 more people on it. Vang stated that the driver of this ATV had a gun on his shoulder. Vang stated that Vang began to run and Vang stated that they saw Vang running and were going too fast to stop and drove past Vang. Vang stated that they stopped approximately 10 to 15 feet past Vang at a 45 degree angle. Vang stated that the man removed the gun from his shoulder with one hand while the other hand was on the handle bars of the ATV. Vang stated that Vang shot 3 or 4 times and both people fell off the ATV and onto the ground.

Vang stated that Vang then started to run back towards where the original shooting started. Vang stated that Vang looked up the trail and saw that one of the men were standing. Vang stated that Vang yelled "You're not dead yet?" Vang stated that Vang shot one more time in the direction of this man but doesn't know if he hit the man or not. Vang stated that he continued to run away and did not return.

. . .

At the scene there was only 1 rifle located.

There are two major differences in the accounts. In Vang's account he was insulted and shot at before he returned fire. In Hesebeck's account (on which, until today, most news accounts seemed to be based) there is no apparent reason that Vang began firing on the group.

But more telling, perhaps, are the places where the two accounts match. In both accounts Vang chases down and shoots one or more of the hunting party as they attempt to flee the scene. In both accounts he calls out a sort of a challenge statement. ("One of you f****** is still alive?" or "You're not dead yet?")

This is all kinds of disturbing.

UPDATE III: One more thing. Because I've been blogging about this incident the last two days, Google searches on the subject keep pointing to my blog. It's been interesting to see what search terms people are using to track down this story. But one search term in particular really bothered me. Someone was searching with the phrase "redneck robert crotteau" -- Robert Crotteau being one of the murder victims. (My blog came up because an earlier post having nothing to do with this incident had the word "redneck" in it). And there we have one small example of how hunters have been depicted by news of this event.

This, too, is disturbing.

UPDATE IV: It appears that this particular blog entry is getting a lot of traffic. Thanks for stopping by. I've been blogging about this because the incident occured near my home town, and I know the area quite well.

I just wanted to let you know that this isn't my only entry on the subject. If you go out to the main page of my blog and start scrolling down, you should find quite a few. But there are a few recent entries here and here with newer information. I'll likely keep blogging about this until the case is resolved.