When hunting in Wisconsin, make sure everyone in the party has a gun.

A deer hunter shot and killed five people and wounded three others after he was spotted on private land and was asked to leave, authorities said.

A 36-year-old man was arrested Sunday afternoon when he came out of the woods after the shootings during the hunt's opening weekend, sheriff's officials said. Two of the wounded were in critical condition Monday.

Deputy Jake Hodgkinson identified the suspect as Chai Vang but would give no details. Vang is from St. Paul, Minn., said Paul Schnell, a spokesman for the St. Paul police department.

The victims were part of a larger group hunting near a rural cabin on private land in Sawyer County in northwestern Wisconsin.

One hunter spotted someone in their tree stand, a raised platform in a tree used by hunters, and he and several others approached the man and asked him to leave, Sawyer County Sheriff James Meier said Monday.

The man got down from the stand and was walking away, then "for some apparent reason he turned and opened fire on them," Meier said.

One hunter radioed to others in the party for help, and more people were shot as they arrived on all-terrain vehicles to rescue the first group, authorities said. Someone in the group wrote the suspect's hunting license number, which hunters wear on their clothing, by tracing it on a dirty vehicle, Meier said.

The suspect, who did not have a compass, got lost in the woods and two other hunters who didn't know about the shootings helped him find his way out, Zeigle said.

The man was arrested when he emerged from the woods and a Department of Natural Resources officer recognized the deer license on his back from a description given by one of the shooting victims, Zeigle said.

The man was out of ammunition, he said.

A question that was raised by a few colleagues of mine is that if they are all up there hunting together, then shouldn't they have been armed. If someone is radioing for help because they are being shot at, do you not take your own firearm with you? When I first heard this story on the radio, I heard that the guy in the tree stand was Vietnamese using an SKS rifle. In the Vietnam War, those rifles were used a lot by the NVA/VC. So, I immediately thought someone was having flashbacks. At 36, I doubt that the murderer is having flashbacks. Still, I think there is more to the story that has yet to be revealed.