Vol. 71/No. 6      February 12, 2007

Cha Vang’s body was found covered with leaves and other debris after members of his hunting party reported him missing. An autopsy indicated he had been hit with a shotgun blast and stabbed six times. He also had a wooden stick coming out of his clenched teeth.

James Nichols, a resident of nearby Peshtigo, was arrested and charged with murder. Nichols has claimed self-defense. Sheriff’s deputies told the media, however, that after his arrest he told them that Hmong people “were mean and kill everything and that they go for, anything that moves.” They said Nichols told several versions of his story. In one, he said Cha Vang shouted, “I’m going to kill you. I’m going to kill you.” Pang Vue, the slain man’s wife, said he knew no English.

The district attorney in Marinette County said he knew of no motive for the killing. Vang’s relatives said it appeared to be racially motivated.

Some in the Hmong community have expressed concern that the killing could be in retaliation for an earlier incident. In November 2004 Chai Soua Vang (no relation to Cha Vang), shot six white hunters after he was confronted and accused of trespassing while hunting deer in the Wisconsin woods near Rice Lake. At his trial Chai Soua Vang said he acted in self-defense after the other hunters shouted racist slurs at him and opened fire first. Vang was convicted on six counts of murder and is serving multiple life sentences.

A public forum was held January 7 in Green Bay to discuss the fatal shooting of Cha Vang. It was called by the Coalition for Community Relations, a Hmong group based in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Tou Ger Xiong, a member of this group, said in an interview that the meeting was called “to discuss the murder of Cha Vang as a hate crime. This was not just one isolated incident. There have been many other incidents in recent years between Hmong and white hunters.” He reported that more than 500 people, mostly Hmong, attended the meeting, coming from all over Wisconsin.

The Hmong are an ethnic group from the hill country of northern Laos who immigrated to the United States after the U.S. war in Indochina. About 40,000 Hmong live in Wisconsin, the third-highest Hmong population in the United States, after California and Minnesota. Of this number, some 6,000 live in the Green Bay area.

At the meeting, Tou Ger Xiong said, “When I asked people to raise their hands if they thought it was a hate crime, almost every hand went up. Since the details of the killing have been released, it is clear the murder was a hate crime. This was not an accidental meeting in the woods. Cha Vang received stab wounds to his face. His body was bruised in many places. At the funeral the photos were available for the public to see.” He noted that “the murderer tried to conceal his crime.”

The town hall meeting was called “so the community could get out and come together and voice its concerns. We were also responding to the claim of self-defense, advocated by James Nichol’s girlfriend, which was widely covered in the media. Race is a very important factor in this crime,” stated Tou Ger Xiong.

Though Cha Vang lived in Wisconsin, the funeral service was held in St. Paul because many of his closest relatives live there. Graphic pictures of Vang's body, stitched up after the autopsy, hung on a wall at the funeral home to draw attention to the nature of his death.

At the funeral home, Kou Vang, one of his uncles, told the Militant, "We hope this murder will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I think this country was founded on justice, and justice is supposed to be blind and I hope it is. Justice needs to be served."

Tom Fiske, Rebecca Williamson, and Carlos Samaniego from St. Paul, Minnesota, contributed to this article.  
 
 
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