According to police officials, hunter Terry Willers spotted an unfamiliar man in a deer hunting tree stand on his private property at around noon on Sunday. After radioing back to a nearby cabin to verify that no one had given him permission to use it, he confronted the trespasser and asked him to leave. The man, Chai Vang, of Saint Paul, MN came down from the stand and appeared to be leaving as five of Willers’ hunting companions, Mark Roidt, Dennis Drew, Lauren Hesebeck, cabin owner Robert Crotteau and his 20 year old son Joey Crotteau, arrived by ATV.

At this point, accounts of the incident begin to vary. Lauren Hesebeck, who was wounded but survived the shooting, told officials that Vang suddenly removed the scope of his rifle and then turned and began to fire on the group. Vang fired several times at Willers, Hesebeck said, before Willers returned fire but did not hit Vang. Vang then shot and stuck Dennis Drew, Mark Roidt, and Hesebeck himself, and continued on to pursue both Robert Crotteau and his son Joey on foot.

After being hit, a member of the hunting party radioed back to the cabin once more to ask for help. A second group arrived, including Willers’ daughter, Jessica Willers. Vong fired upon them as well.

According to court documents released today, Vang told investigators that the group of hunters surrounded him, shouted racial epithets, and pointed and fired a gun towards him. Vang then admitted that he shot the gunman and pursued the other hunters.

Robert Crotteau, Joey Crotteau, Al Laski, Mark Roidt, and Jessica Willers were all pronounced dead on site and Dennis Drew died Monday following critical abdominal wounds. Lauren Hesebeck and Terry Willers both sustained bullet wounds but survived the incident. Hesebeck was released from the hospital Monday and Willers is in fair condition.

Vang was wielding as SKS military style semi-automatic assault rifle with a 20 round capacity. The SKS is essentially the low-cost equivalent of an AK-47. The two weapons are functionally identical - they have the same firing characteristics and use the same ammunition and detachable magazines. Both the SKS and AK-47 are military weapons originally designed for use by soldiers in combat. Although the SKS is used by some hunters because of its low cost, it lacks the force to kill a deer with one shot and is not designed for hunting. According to a 2002 report by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), the SKS is “the rifle model most frequently encountered by law enforcement officers.” To date, in 2004, at least 5 law enforcement officers have been killed with SKS assault rifles.

This incident characterizes the escalating effect that guns can have on already hostile situations. What could have been a simple argument over trespassing quickly became a bloodbath with the use of guns. The lethality of assault weapons like the SKS magnifies this threat to an even greater extent. The large ammunition capacities of these weapons allow for criminals to lie down upwards of 20, 30, and 40 rounds, without even pausing to reload. This ability to shower an area with bullets is over-powering. “Armed hunters were no match for one person firing an SKS assault rifle,” said Kristin Rand of the Violence Policy Center in Washington D.C.

As we have previously discussed in this column, Congress failed this past September to strengthen and renew the federal ban on assault weapons. This incident illustrates the deadly consequences of a society that allows these military combat weapons to be available to the general public. Iowans do not have to fall victim to the federal government’s disregard of this issue. Our Iowa lawmakers have the power to take back the right of our citizens to live in a state free of the unnecessary risks from gun violence that assault weapons present by considering a strong and effective state assault weapon ban that would prohibit the future sale of all assault weapon here in Iowa.