Maplewood Man Mourns Loss Of Brother, Killed By Father
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – The brother of a man who was murdered by his own father speaks on the tragedy that has rocked his family.
On Monday, police arrested a man for the murder of his own son. The father shot his son during an argument over cable TV.
Police said 84-year-old Pang Vang turned a rifle on his 36-year-old son Chue Vang inside the home they shared in Maplewood, Minn.
"When you talked to him he is always up and happy," Chue Vang's brother, Chong Vang, said of Chue.
Chue Vang was the glue that held his family together.
The Humboldt High School graduate was an Eagle Scout and was a decorated member of JROTC.
After graduation he went to Duluth for college and for work.
He recently returned to the cities to help his family after several brothers lost their jobs.
"This house, you know, he bought this house, not me. You know, I mean that's love. In my eyes, my brother did everything," Vang said.
Chong Vang said his father and brother would argue.
"He would always say your brother is a failure," Vang said.
Arguments would always end in the elder Vang wanting to be paid back for helping Chue with tuition.
It was an argument over cable that ended in gunfire. The elder Vang wanted the service, and his son did not.
"He came out of his room, walked into my dad's room and all my mom could hear was dad and then the gunshot went," Vang said.
As Chue was bleeding on the floor another brother ran downstairs to help, and his father was reloading in the bedroom.
Minutes later, Chong said his father walked out of the room, shotgun in hand.
"So the barrel came out the hall where he was standing so he grabbed it and wrestled, and the gun, I guess, my dad shot it up to the ceiling," Vang said.
Pang Vang was stripped of the weapon.
He then locked himself in the bedroom and stabbed himself in the neck and chest. SWAT teams swarmed the house, and he eventually surrendered.
None of the five boys and three girls left in the family imagined their father could do such a thing,
"I've heard thousands of times," Vang said. "But he never did it before he never pulled up a gun or a knife."
Now they are faced with life without the true leader of their family, and the uncertainty of what will happen to the man who caused them all so much pain.
"Whatever he did to Chue, whatever he is going to get, he deserves," Vang said.
Pang Vang is being held on one million dollars bail.
He is the oldest person to be charged with murder in Ramsey County in the past 30 years.
Chue Vang will be laid to rest on April 3. Click here for information on how to donate to his funeral fund.
