MINNEAPOLIS _ Brandon Van Tassell walked to his deer stand Saturday morning toting a .338 Savage and three decades' worth of memories.
Brandon, 34, was fairly new to the sport. He had begun hunting birds in his mid-20s. But not until two years ago did he consider giving deer hunting a try.
Brandon wasn't brought up as a hunter. But he was familiar with guns. Oftentimes he shot clays with his friends, and he knew his way around a rifle.
"I didn't keep Brandon away from hunting intentionally when he was young," said his mom, Kimberly. "But I didn't expose him to it, either. I knew he would be a safe hunter. Still, when he went, I just had to put it out of my mind. I couldn't think about it."
Thirty years ago _ Nov. 6, 1989 _ Brandon was 4 years old when his dad, Kim, was killed on opening weekend of deer season. Another hunter shot him, mistaking him for a deer, even though Kim was riding his three-wheeler at the time.
Kim and Kimberly had been high school sweethearts in Spring Lake Park, and on the eve of their marriage, Kim, an avid outdoorsman, warned his soon-to-be wife he would be gone frequently, hunting and fishing.
He was good with a rod and reel, too. And a gun. A couple of years before he was killed, he arrowed a trophy whitetail buck that landed on a magazine cover.
Kim's hunting partners would recall that shots rang out from the direction of his stand about 5:20 p.m. on the Monday of opening weekend in 1989. Hearing the reports, one of the hunters, who had already returned to camp, said, "What the hell was that? Kim wouldn't shoot that late."
Kimberly was home in the Twin Cities that evening with Brandon and his 8-year-old sister, Janelle. Kim had promised to call before the kids went to bed. But 7 o'clock came and went, with no call. Then 8 and 9.
About 10 p.m., the doorbell rang. Kimberly's mother, father and brother were beneath the porch light. Kim, she would learn, was dead.
"If you're a deer hunter, and you shoot," Kimberly said, "you better know what you're shooting at. It can change a lot of lives forever."
