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Maikue Vang's sadness was laced with anger and frustration as the funeral began Saturday for her uncle Cha Vang, who was slain in the Wisconsin woods while hunting earlier this month.
"A lot of people are confused and wondering, Why did this happen to him?'" said Vang, who traveled from Fresno, Calif., for a three- day, traditional funeral for Cha Vang, a Hmong refugee who came to the United States two years ago and lived in Green Bay. "It's really sad, because he really just came here."
Vang's body was found partly covered by leaves and debris Jan. 6 in a wildlife refuge near Green Bay, and last week authorities charged James Nichols, 28, with murder after an autopsy showed Vang had been stabbed several times and shot in the head and torso.
Nichols, who is white, has told police he was acting in self- defense.
The slaying, coming two years after a Hmong man from St. Paul shot and killed six white hunters in Wisconsin, has rekindled racial tensions on Wisconsin hunting lands.
"I don't think this was self-defense at all," St. Paul resident Pao Vang, who is not related to Cha Vang, said as he left the funeral service. "We want...