Hmong hunter killed in Wisconsin sought better life.
Sunday January 07, 2007
By EMILY FREDRIX
Associated Press Writer
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) A Hmong refugee killed while hunting in northern Wisconsin spoke no English and could not have provoked an attack, his wife and a community leader said Sunday.
Cha Vang, 30, of Green Bay was found dead Saturday morning in the Peshtigo Harbor Wildlife Area in northeastern Wisconsin after he was reported missing the night before.
His wife, Pang Vue, said the family, which includes five children ranging in age from 3 to 11, came to the U.S. two years ago. It was her husband's goal to provide a better life for his children than the one he had growing up in refugee camps in Southeast Asia, she said.
``Our dream was just starting, just now beginning, and now it falls apart again,'' Vue, 25, said through an interpreter as dozens of family members and friends gathered at her home Sunday afternoon. The couple had been married 13 years.
Sheriff's authorities have detained a 28-year-old Peshtigo man, who showed up at a medical center in Marinette with a single non-life threatening gunshot wound Saturday, as a person of interest.
Authorities planned to perform an autopsy Monday on Vang.
Laurel Steffes, a spokeswoman for the Marinette County Sheriff's department, couldn't comment on how they think Vang died or a possible motive, except to say he did not die of natural causes. They are treating the case as a homicide.
Yia Thao, president of the United Hmong Community Center, said Vang had just started taking English classes and also was learning how to hunt. He did not think Vang provoked anyone because he did not speak the language of his adopted country.
``I don't believe he could do any bad thing, because of the language,'' Thao said. ``He was very aware of not knowing the language.''
The case comes more than two years after Hmong immigrant Chai Soua Vang, 38, of St. Paul, Minn., said he killed six and injured two white hunters in self-defense. He claimed one of them fired a shot in his direction after they shouted racial epithets and cursed at him in northwestern Wisconsin in November 2004.
The former truck driver is serving multiple life terms.
Those slayings exposed racial tension between the predominantly white northwoods and Hmong people who have immigrated to the Midwest.
Randy Stark, chief conservation warden for the state Department of Natural Resources, said they don't keep track of hunters by race, but he and other state wardens have recently noticed less Hmong hunters. He said many told him they were afraid of racism.
Stark said they are seeing more conflicts in general because of the shrinking amount of private land open for public hunting, which has caused confusion over available hunting land. Some people are also getting territorial over use of public land he or she may have hunted on for decades.
People in attendance at Green Bay Hmong Alliance Church in Green Bay were told of the killing Sunday morning, though many had heard about it the night before, said Nao Vang, 60.
The first thought in people's minds was the 2004 incident, he said.
``Some worry this could be retaliation,'' he said. ``People are very concerned about that.''
Thao said he heard the same thing but urged caution.
``I told them we have to listen to what is actually happening,'' he said.
Chao Vang, owner of Asian Food Market in Green Bay, said he's reserving judgment.
``People don't think it's retaliation. They consider it an individual case,'' said Chao Vang, who said Vang is a common Hmong name and he was not related to Cha Vang.
Vang's hunting party had contacted authorities Friday night when he failed to meet them at the wildlife center, Steffes said. The sheriff's department was alerted Saturday morning by staff at a local hospital that James A. Nichols was being treated for a gunshot wound, as required by law.
Nichols was jailed on a parole violation from an unrelated burglary conviction, authorities said. No charges have been filed in Vang's death, Steffes said.
Steffes couldn't comment on anything Nichols told authorities, including whether race was a factor. She said the district attorney must review the evidence and wait for the autopsy to decide if he will file charges.
Vang was a licensed hunter who was with three other people Friday hunting for small game, Steffes said. She said Nichols, also a licensed hunter, was hunting alone. She couldn't say what he was hunting or if he had a weapon. A bow and arrow deer hunt was also going on at the time, she said.