LACROSSE, Wis. – It was a horrific scene that could have from a mob movie. On a dark night at a quarry up a crooked remote road, three men were forced out of a car, told to kneel, and were shot at least 10 times. The detailed account was from an eyewitness who presented herself to police investigators, said Sheriff Jeff Wolf. The sheriff said the first-person account was a big break in the case, which led to two arrests a week later in the Wausau area. The witness was in one of two cars at the quarry, Wolf said. The woman has been given police protection in a secure location, Wolf said.
This is the chronology that Wolf and his team pieced together of what happened:
Wolf: 10 cartridge shells recovered at murder scene.
The picture now: What happened
.> Peng Lor, Trevor Maloney and Nemo Yang were staying in a hotel room in the LaCrosse suburb of Onalaska.
> Elsewhere, a woman joined Nya Thao and Khamthaneth Rattanasack. They drove in separate cars to another hotel. She went in to to drop off some items. When she came back out, Thao was in her vehicle. Rattanasack was behind the wheel of a Mercedes. He was showing a handgun.
> Thau and Rattansack told her tto follow the Mercedes in her vehicle. She complied.
> The vehicles ended up at the quarry 10 miles away up Jostad Coulee.
> Everyone got out of the vehicles. Rattanasack ordered the three victims to kneel on the ground. They did. Rattanasack gave his gun to Thao, who then shot the men multiple times.
> The men got back in the Mercedes and left. The woman drove off in her own car.
> Using t he witness’s account, as well tracking one of the victims’ cell phones, which was taken by Rattnasank and Thao, investigators tracked them to the Wausau area. The oair were arrested separately Wednesday night and Thursday morning.
One of the people interviewed by investigators said that the shooting happened because Rattanasack believed that Yang or Lor may have stolen some credit cards totaling around $600.