Nearly two weeks after the hunting rampage that left six dead and two wounded, residents in the small northern Wisconsin town of Rice Lake are still struggling to cope with the reality of the tragedy. The eight victims were all widely known throughout the close-knit community of 8,500, and now survivors, friends and family members are questioning how such an atrocity could ever occur in a town that up until the shootings had seen only one homicide in the last year.
The defendant, a Hmong immigrant from Laos named Chai Vang, has admitted to the shootings, claiming he fired his weapon only after he was subjected to racial slurs and was shot at by one of the victims. Following the shootings, Hmong leaders in the area condemned Vang's actions and expressed concern over a possible surge of anti-Hmong retaliations. Joe Bee Xiong, the director of the Hmong American Mutual Assistance Association, suggested members of the Hmong population forgo their hunting plans for the remainder of the season, adding, \Our children are feeling pressures in school. Other children are asking them, 'How come the Hmong are doing this to us?'""
Despite the feared backlash, a spokesperson for the Rice Lake chief of police noted no one has been victim to crimes in response to the shootings.
However, Mai Vue Kiah Xiong, a student at UW-Madison and co-chair of the Hmong American Student Association, is aware of the animosity in her hometown of Eau Claire.
""There seems to be a lot more backlash going on there because it is so close to St. Paul, where Chai Vang is from. My whole Thanksgiving vacation was dominated by talks of the shooting and how it is affecting Hmong people everywhere,"" Xiong said. ""My aunts from Eau Claire talked about getting looks when waiting at stoplights. These looks turned into nasty stares then into middle fingers being flipped before the drivers drove away when the lights turned green.""
Vang now faces six counts of first-degree intentional homicide in Sawyer County, and since he admitted to the shootings, the defense will likely argue the defendant acted out of self-defense.
According to UW-Madison Associate Professor of law Keith Findley, a self-defense claim will be difficult, as the defense might attempt to get a change of location for the trial.
""The problem is, they're going to have to find some other community that hasn't been saturated with publicity, and this is making national news, so that is going to be tough to find,"" he said.
