Five Hunters Shot Dead in Wisconsin Dispute

A dispute among deer hunters about a tree stand in northwestern Wisconsin erupted Sunday in a series of shootings that left five people dead and three others injured, officials said.

Jake Hodgkinson, a deputy at the county jail, identified the suspect as Chai Vang. The Star Tribune of Minneapolis reported Vang was 36 and from St. Paul, Minn.

The incident happened when two hunters were returning to their rural cabin on private land in Sawyer County and saw the suspect in one of the tree platforms that they used for hunting, Sawyer County Chief Deputy Tim Zeigle said. A confrontation and shooting followed.

It was not known who shot first, Zeigle said.

The two hunters were wounded and one of them radioed back to the cabin. Other hunters responded and were shot, Zeigle said.

The suspect was “sniping” at the victims with an SKS assault-style rifle, Zeigle said. He was “chasing after them and killing them,” he said.

The dead included a woman and four males, including a teenage boy, Zeigle said. The man who radioed for help was not fatally wounded. Some of the victims were shot more than once.

Officers arrived to find five victims dead at the scene, he said.

Authorities found two bodies near each other, and the other three were scattered around the area, which is near Meteor in southwestern Sawyer County. Two people who stayed in the cabin were not hurt.

The suspect, who did not have a compass, got lost in the woods after the shooting, and two other hunters, not knowing the man was being sought by police, helped him find his way out, Zeigle said. When the suspect emerged from the woods, Zeigle said, a Department of Natural Resources officer recognized the license information worn on his back, which was given to police by a victim.