Police: Dispute over deer stand apparently led to shootings
Sunday, November 21, 2004 Posted: 8:34 PM EST (0134 GMT)
(CNN) -- Sheriff's deputies were investigating the killings of five
hunters Sunday in northwestern Wisconsin, apparently sparked by a hunting
dispute that turned violent.
Three others were wounded, said Julie Veness, an emergency medical
technician in Exeland, Wisconsin.
Saturday was the opening of the nine-day deer season, and the shooting
appeared to stem from a dispute over land in the heavily wooded area, Veness
said.
"Apparently, the person was asked to leave and get out of his deer stand,
and he didn't take it very well and he fired away at them," she said.
A state police official said a man wanted in connection with the
shootings has been arrested, but no details were immediately available. The
Sawyer County Sheriff's Department, which is investigating the killings, had
no comment.
Jennifer Greshowak, a spokeswoman for Lakeview Medical Center in Rice
Lake, said three wounded men from the same hunting party were brought to
that facility after suffering gunshot wounds. One of the three was
transferred to a hospital in nearby Marshfield; one was in surgery Sunday
afternoon, while the third was in intensive care, she said.
Veness said the killings have shocked Exeland, a village of 219 people.
"It just doesn't happen in this neck of the woods," she said. "We
don't expect any of this to happen."
