Around midday on Sunday, Nov. 21 Chai Soua Vang, 36, of Minnesota allegedly shot and killed six people in northwestern Wisconsin, wounding two others.
The nightmarish shootings have spoiled this year's opening hunting weekend and taken a toll on the hunting community. The grief and devastation have hit hardest in Rice Lake, Wis., where all eight of the victims had ties. Only about 30 miles from the shooting, Rice Lake is a small, closely knit community that happens to be my hometown.
My immediate response to the attack was an emotional roller coaster bringing me from hatred and anger to hopeless grief in a remarkably short period. I became acutely aware of my inability to be of any help to anyone, being trapped 300 hundred miles to the east, and heading back to Madison, a community that neither understands nor entirely accepts the practice of hunting.
In one vicious act, six lives have been extinguished, but how many more have changed paths forever? The cruel irony here is that opening weekend of deer season is traditionally a time of celebration, when families and friends gather and connect with the land while bonding with each other. Instead this year several families had members forcibly torn away from them. Hunting will never be the same.
The only victims I knew personally were the Crotteaus. Joe, 20, and his father Robert, 42, were both murdered that day. Joe graduated from Rice Lake High School one year before I did. There have been claims of self-defense by the alleged shooter Vang and yet Joe was shot in the back while screaming for help-Vang has admitted as much, according to the criminal complaint. Make no mistake, Joseph Crotteau was executed in the coldest of blood.
Joe's younger brother Carter, 18, played football with me on defense. He was present at the shooting but survived without harm. He lost his brother and his father in one terrible day; his life has been shattered. Upon my return home I heard reports that he held his dying father in his arms and dragged his lifeless brother out of the woods.
I want so much to reach out and help you Carter, but I have no idea how. I do not possibly know what you will have to do to restore meaning and happiness to your life. When I lost my brother Tony, he was about the same age as Joe. The circumstances were different and I have no doubt your return to life will be harder. Yet from this I know you can make it. At this point there is nothing that I or anyone else can do except to say that we are here. We are with you-not just Rice Lake, not only hunters or Wisconsinites, but humanity.
As for Vang, I am unable to sufficiently describe my feelings. For a few hours I could have killed him with my own hands, and yet now I find myself feeling nothing but pity. Who knows why he allegedly did it? Maybe the victims did shoot first, as he alleges. Maybe the trauma of Laotian and Thai refugee camps destroyed his concept of human life. Whatever it was, I do not for one moment accept the idea that this man is mentally healthy.
In a way, his stated reasons have little relevance when the facts are considered. He is charged with killing six people, more than one of them was unarmed and more than one were shot in the back. The criminal complaint says he reversed his hunting vest from orange to camouflage and attacked those coming to help the victims already shot. He did all, the criminal complaint says, this after having earned a sharpshooter designation in the U.S. Army some years ago. He knew what he was doing, even if unable to comprehend the full consequences. Honestly, I hope he never sees the light of day again.
