Michael Sears/Milwaukee Journal Setinel/KRTFamily members of two UW-Eau Claire students and one admissions counselor were killed Sunday in a dispute over a tree stand in a northwestern Wisconsin woods, near Birchwood.
Freshman football player Carter Crotteau of Haugen lost his father Robert, 42, and his brother, Joseph, 20, in the incident.
Senior MIS major Aislinn Koenig is the daughter of Allan Laski, 43, who was also killed Sunday. Laski was from Haugen.
Admissions counselor Heather Kretz is the daughter of Dennis Drew, 55, of Rice Lake, who died Monday night from gunshot injuries.
Chancellor Donald Mash notified students and staff members of the campus link to the tragedy in an e-mail that was sent Tuesday morning.
Jessica Willers, 27, and Mark Roidt, 28, both of Rice Lake were also killed Sunday.
Terry Willers, 47, and Lauren Hesebeck, 48, both of Rice Lake, were injured. Hesebeck was released from Lakeview Medical Center in Rice Lake Monday night. Willers remains in stable condition at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Marshfield.
Events leading to shootings
The accused gunman is Chai Soua Vang, 36, of St. Paul, Minn.
Vang was spotted in a tree stand on private property on Sunday afternoon by Terry Willers, a member of the property owner’s hunting party.
Terry Willers radioed the rest of the hunting party, which was in a nearby cabin, and then asked Vang to leave.
The rest of the hunting party headed for the scene on all-terrain vehicles. When they arrived, Vang left the tree stand, but as he was leaving Vang removed the scope of his rifle, and began to fire on the group. A group member wrote Vang’s hunter identification number in dust on one of the ATV’s. All Wisconsin hunters are required to display their hunting license number.
It is then alleged that Vang chased down members of the hunting party and shot them.
Vang wandered through the woods, and met two other hunters. He told the hunters he was lost. The hunters offered Vang a ride to a DNR Warden’s truck.
DNR Warden Jeremy Peery recognized Vang’s deer license number, which had been reported by surviving members of the hunting party, and placed him under arrest.
Vang is currently being held in the Sawyer County jail. His bail has been set at $2.5 million.
On Tuesday, Vang told law enforcement officials that he shot at the hunting party, but only after he had been shot at and attacked with racial slurs.
Formal charges have not been filed against Vang. They are expected to be filed before his initial court appearance at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 30.
University offering assistance
Jodi Thesing-Ritter, associate dean of student development, said Tuesday that the university is working with Crotteau and Koenig. Thesing-Ritter said the university is offering the students the same assistance as anyone else who is struck with a major tragedy – they will be allowed to take incompletes in their classes and finish next semester.
In addition to Carter Crotteau, Koenig and Kretz, there are a number of cousins, neighbors and friends of the victims who have been affected by the incident, Thesing-Ritter said.
Our heartfelt condolences go out to the families, Thesing-Ritter said.
“You can just feel it in the air around campus,” she said.
In addition to the help offered through Student Development and Diversity, Counseling Services also is offering help to those affected by the shootings, said Counseling Services Director, P.J. Kennedy.
At this time, Kennedy said, Counseling Services has not heard anything from those who knew the victims, but he said that is typical with tragedies of this nature. He said the typical way of coping is to first go to family and loved ones.
However, if students who have been affected by Sunday’s shootings do come to Counseling Services, they can expect to receive immediate attention.
“We’ll drop what we are doing to see them,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy expects if people do come to Counseling Services, it will likely happen in the coming weeks.
With a tragedy that has impacted a potentially large group of Eau Claire students, Kennedy said, Counseling Services may offer group meetings to counsel individuals who have been affected.
Kennedy said he is normally contacted to help directly notify students of tragedies that directly impact them on weekends. In most cases University Police will be contacted first to find and notify the student, Kennedy said. In these cases, University Police often brings him in to help, he said. Kennedy said he was not contacted this weekend to notify either student.
Horan Hall comes together
Junior Craig Espersen, an RA on the first floor of Horan Hall, where Carter lives, said he heard Carter was at home in Rice Lake hunting.
“He was there, apparently, is what I’ve been told,” he said. “He was at home hunting.”
Horan Hall Director Bill Macozek said although not many residents in Horan Hall know Carter, news of the tragedy traveled in what he called “a chain of communication” and hit them hard.
“It’s the senseless tragedy, plus the immediacy,” he said, adding many of Carter’s football teammates who live in Horan are hunters and feel such a random tragedy could have happened to anybody.
“It could have been their family just as easily as it was Carter’s,” Macozek said.
Freshman Eric Scholz lives across the hall from Carter and said he and a group of about 10 football players living in Horan hang out all the time.
He said he, as well as some teammates and friends from Horan, plan to go to Rice Lake Sunday to talk with Carter. He said he hasn’t contacted him yet, because he’s unsure of what’s appropriate in a situation he called brutal.
But Scholz said he and freshman Marc Davis, a friend and teammate who lives on third floor in Horan, talked to Macozek about what would be appropriate to send Carter and his family.
They decided to send flowers and cards signed by the residents for the funeral. They also plan to walk to every room with a donation envelope that now sits at the front desk in Horan.
Scholz said anyone interested in donating may “go there and donate whatever feels right.”
“It’s a terrible thing that happened, and we really feel extremely bad,” he said. “We would hope in our group of friends that they would do the same for us. We just feel bad, and we’re … praying for him.”
— The Associated Press contributed to this story
