Man beheaded on bus to Winnipeg

[fkid]

Death row inmates usually spend about 10 years waiting to be executed, in which they have numerous chances to make appeals.

If they're not successful making appeals in that 10 year period they'll likely be spending their whole life in a prison cell, without parole, whether they're guilty or innocent. I'm not sure if you were sentenced for murdering and you were 85 years old in a prison you would really say you preferred that over being executed years ago.

I don't have a strong belief on the death penalty either way, but I think its not as big of a deal as some people make it out to be. Everyone dies eventually. You're not the cause of that, you're the cause of their life being cut short. But cutting someone's life short versus having them spend 50+ years in a prison cell is not as simple a decision as you want to make it out to be. Which is really the harsher judgment?

I'm not sure if you made a mistake or not, but from what I understand death row inmates are sentenced to the death penalty, not life in prison. I argue fully against the death penalty and only partially against life in prison.

[redfish]

I'm not sure if you made a mistake or not, but from what I understand death row inmates are sentenced to the death penalty, not life in prison. I argue fully against the death penalty and only partially against life in prison.

No I wrote that wrong; I meant that if there was no death penalty they'd spend the rest of their lives in prison without parole.

[fkid]

No I wrote that wrong; I meant that if there was no death penalty they'd spend the rest of their lives in prison without parole.

Certainly. And that's the aspect of the US justice system I am against. It's not like that in Canada.

[Black Flash]

Just saw this on the news right now, that's horrible. Poor guy didn't stand a chance, someone should have bashed his face in with a fire extinguisher.

[peacemf]

Well if it happend in the UK everyone would be able to sleep easy knowing that he would get a lengthy 1 year in prison and perhaps only 6months if he doesnt kill anyone in inside.

its great how life means sooo little in the UK :)

on the other hand you could just kill a person , go to jail for a few weeks and it would be like a free vaction!

This is another reason to why im sticking to my car!

[Berserk87]

its acts like this, that I can't understand how opponents against the death penalty still think this guy is worthy of being feed,clothed,housed by taxpayers money in prison...and being in Canada could even get parole later in his LIFE.

a quick swift death is the last thing guys like this deserve.

[Mosqutus]

UPDATE

WINNIPEG ? RCMP have charged a man Friday with second-degree murder in connection with a horrific stabbing and beheading that took place on a Greyhound bus.

Vince Weiguang Li, 40, of Edmonton is scheduled to make a first appearance in court Friday morning in Portage la Prairie.

A post mortem will be conducted in Winnipeg today on the victim, confirmed to be 22, who has not been officially identified.

All was quiet on Greyhound bus 1170 as it rolled across the darkening prairie.

Night was closing in and passengers were dozing off as The Legend of Zorro played on the television screen.

An aboriginal man of about 20, making his way home to Manitoba from Edmonton, was sitting on his own in the back row, headphones covering his ears, sleeping with his cheek resting on the window pane.

CTV Winnipeg reported late Thursday that his name was Tim MacLean. Friends said he was 22.

He barely acknowledged the 40-year-old man in sunglasses who, having boarded the bus in Brandon, first sat near the front, then walked down the aisle, slid his bags into the overhead bin, and sat down next to him.

The strangers sat together in silence for a half hour or more, said Garnet Caton, a 26-year-old seismic driller who was in the row ahead.

Then the calm of an otherwise unremarkable bus ride was shattered by a sound so chilling it could only be described as somewhere between a dog howling and a baby crying.

?It was a blood-curdling scream,? he said. ?I turned around and the guy sitting right [behind] me was standing up and stabbing another guy with a big Rambo knife ? Right in the throat. Repeatedly.?

Mr. Caton said the attack was utterly unprovoked.

He watched in horror as the man, described as tall and well-built with close-cropped hair, plunged his hunting knife into the victim eight or nine times, sending blood spraying across the back of the bus.

The driver, hearing the screams, pulled to the side of the road and opened the doors, allowing passengers to flee. They scrambled over one another and, in their haste, knocked an elderly woman to the floor. One mother, who was seated near the back, threw her toddler forward several rows to get the child away from danger, a witness said.

Mr. Caton, who served five years in the Canadian Forces and was closest to the attacker, paused before leaving, torn momentarily between concern for his own safety and the thought of abandoning the bleeding victim. He turned to another man nearby and asked for his help.

?I said, ?Give me a hand and let's get this guy.' And the other guy took off,? he said.

It was only moments later that the victim's screams went silent. Mr. Caton knew he was too late.

Mr. Caton jumped off the bus, and was met by a trucker who had stopped after seeing the commotion. The trucker grabbed a crowbar and Mr. Caton got a hammer and they tried to contain the attacker on the bus. The attacker swung his knife at them through the partially closed bus door.

Then the incident became even more macabre. The attacker returned to the victim's side and began sawing through his neck. A few moments later, he walked to the front of the bus holding a decapitated human head, displaying it to the 34 passengers and the bus driver standing outside.

?I got sick after I saw the head thing,? Mr. Caton said. ?Some people were puking, some people were crying, some people were shocked.?

The killer, meanwhile, was unfazed.

?He just looked at us and dropped the head on the ground, totally calm,? he said.

Reports from the scene indicate the man then ate pieces of the corpse.

It was at that point that the RCMP arrived and a standoff developed, with armed officers surrounding the bus.

For more than three hours the man taunted police, moving around the bus and cutting away at the corpse. Around 1:30 a.m. local time, he broke a window and tried to jump out but was quickly arrested.

The RCMP did not release the man's name Thursday because he has not been formally charged, but said they believe he is not from Manitoba. Staff Sergeant Steve Colwell said the man has not yet been questioned by police, and could not say whether he had been treated by a doctor.

He could offer no explanation for what prompted the attack, and had no information on whether the attacker was known to police or had a history of violence or instability.

Mr. McLean's father, Tim McLean Sr., told CBC News Thursday night that he was in the process of trying to get confirmation from the police that his son was, in fact, the victim of the attack.

The father said that his son had sent him a text message as the bus was leaving Brandon, the last leg of its journey, to ask if he could come home for the night.

Mr. McLean told his son that, of course, he could come home, and that was the last contact he had with him.

A Facebook website called "R.I.P. Tim" quickly sprang up after news of the attack. "I can't believe this is happening," wrote Leah Dryburgh of Winnipeg. "Tim, you were the best guy ever. You didn't deserve this at all."

Police praised the reaction of the bus driver and passengers, which they say may have averted further injuries.

?They were very brave. They reacted swiftly and calmly in exiting the bus and as a result nobody else was injured,? Staff Sgt. Colwell said. ?It's not every day that someone gets stabbed on a bus. I imagine it would be fairly traumatic for the other passengers on the bus and the way they reacted was extraordinary.?

The passengers were eventually taken to an RCMP station in Brandon to be questioned, and then put up for the night in a local hotel. Most stayed up late, bleary-eyed strangers gathering in small groups, talking through a horrifying event that defied rational explanation.

?I tried to lay down at 4 o'clock this morning and I was up 10 minutes later, because every time I close my eyes I see this man in the window with some guy's head I just smoked a cigarette with an hour before,? said passenger Cody Olmstead, who was on his way home to Nova Scotia.

Mr. Olmstead may have been the last person to speak to the victim before he was killed. He said they exchanged pleasantries, but not much more. The young man, who was about 5 foot 8 and 150 pounds, was dressed in baggy, hip-hop clothing, passengers said.

?He seemed to be all right. I didn't get to know him,? he said. ?He just told me where he was going. I told him where I was going.?

At first, Mr. Olmstead said, he thought it was a regular fistfight. But when somebody yelled ?knife,? everyone started to run.

?What can you do when a man's got a knife the size of, you know, it's a big knife. So we just tried to stay out of the way,? he said.

He said he didn't notice any tension between the two men beforehand, or even a minor incident that could have sparked a confrontation.

?No, there was no tension. The guy got on the bus, sat down beside the fellow. The fellow offered him the seat, woke up, said, ?Yeah, go ahead,' fell back asleep. Next thing you know, he's getting stabbed repetitively,? he said. ?And then I guess he cuts buddy's head off, and he walks up to the door, holds the head in the door and just looks at him, crazy like, and just drops the head.?

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day called Thursday's incident horrific and said his heart goes to the family of the victim. However, he played down the possibility of enacting tough security measures in Canada's bus terminals, similar to what exists in airports.

?People should always be open to looking at precautionary measures. But let's keep in mind that as bizarre and tragic as this is, it is extremely rare,? Mr. Day said.

He also dismissed talk by some opposition MPs of a ?knife registry,? saying that millions of them are bought each year simply for kitchen use. He added that there are already provisions in the Criminal Code against crimes and assaults.

Speaking at a Conservative Party caucus meeting, Mr. Day said he does not want to jeopardize the investigation, but added he wants to see the killer ?convicted in court.?

Grief counsellors from the Brandon Regional Health Authority were made available to the passengers at the hotel Wednesday night. They were eventually allowed to complete their journey to Winnipeg, even though all their possessions had to be left on the bus while police continued their search of the crime scene.

Greyhound paid for them to buy clothes Thursday, and later transported them into Winnipeg, where some were reunited with anxious family members late in the afternoon.

The bus remained parked at the side of the Trans-Canada Highway Thursday, about 20 kilometres west of Portage La Prairie, as forensic teams sifted through evidence.

[Lasker]

God damn, the guy ate part of the guy body? WTF... this is sick as coming from a scary movie, remind me the first Jeepers Creepers movie.

[revvo]

That guy deserves the death penalty, but yeah we're Canada, he'll be back on the streets in a few years.

And that's why I think it's more fair in the US. You kill someone you get life sentence 25 years (I think?), or death sentence if you're ****ing dangerous or 200+ years in prison and deadly enraged buttzeks if you're a pedophile.

[jwjw1]

That guy deserves the death penalty, but yeah we're Canada, he'll be back on the streets in a few years.

lol...whats funny is all the lovey dovey anti-death penalty people who 'Scream Injustice' and want to make headlines seem to run and hide when those people are released and looking for a place to stay. They want to save the world yet shuck responsibility on other people. They get the Top Hypocrite Award.

[Jase]

Holy ****!!! :omg:

[I am Reid]

That guy deserves the death penalty, but yeah we're Canada, he'll be back on the streets in a few years.

And that's why I think it's more fair in the US. You kill someone you get life sentence 25 years (I think?), or death sentence if you're ****ing dangerous or 200+ years in prison and deadly enraged buttzeks if you're a pedophile.

I belive a life sentence is 99 years in the US, or at least most states.

[pegcitynetworks]

There was another beheading murder that happened in Winnipeg in 2002. The accused murderer, Sydney Teerhuis, dismembered and possibly consumed some of the victims internal organs. Even more interesting is the fact that $3000 worth of jewelry from the set of ?Shall We Dance?, stolen from Susan Surandon?s trailer, was recovered at the scene among blood and guts.

There?s a video on this website:

http://www.trophykill.tv

with details on the murder! Check it out.

Winnipeg author and social activist Dan Zupansky is writing a book about the tragedy and the upcoming December 2008 trial titled ?Trophy Kill: The Trial and Revelations of a Psychopathic Killer. The Shall We Dance Murder.?

[Joni_78]

That guy deserves the death penalty, but yeah we're Canada, he'll be back on the streets in a few years.

And that's why I think it's more fair in the US. You kill someone you get life sentence 25 years (I think?), or death sentence if you're ****ing dangerous or 200+ years in prison and deadly enraged buttzeks if you're a pedophile.

You might suddenly get a scitsofrenia oneday and think that you have to kill someone, eat part of him and so on. That's not something you can control or understand that it was wrong until you recover.

Also you might kill your girlfriend someday without any mental disorders, sometimes people just snap in extreme anger without realizing what they are doing.

It would be hard to live with ourself when you someday understand what you have done, but would you really want to get a death penalty?

[Badtz-Maru]

it must feel horrible to be mr. caton because he had the opportunity to save this guy but couldn't because someone chickened out :(

[PermaSt0ne]

it must feel horrible to be mr. caton because he had the opportunity to save this guy but couldn't because someone chickened out :(

someone chickened out? mr. caton got off the buss like everyone else

usually when i see an article like this i expect people to restrain the guy, but then i finish the article and once again realize chivalry doesn't exist in today's society

[Brian Veteran]

I'm fairly certain the majority of you would run off the bus as well... Don't tell me we've got a huge group of keyboard heroes here when AFTER Mr Caton helped to get the remainder of the passengers off the bus they held him at bay... Caton + other two holding the door shut had already tried getting back on the bus to take buddy down but he also attempted to attack them, then the bus driver disabled the bus from the rear when the attacker tried to start it. It wasn't like the bus was hijacked and they sat down and calmly planned to take down the hijacker... Fear and panic take over fairly quick and Caton + the driver did a good job of keeping the attacker at bay.

[Chosen One]

All the passengers are a bunch of panzies, and saw a picture of the guy who committed the crime, he's Asian! 5'9 170Ibs.

[Brian Veteran]

Still pretty sure on a bus without knowing what's going on and people screaming to get off the bus, you'd move your ass.

[GNRambo]

:angry: This is just wrong. To have this happen in Canada is just shocking. Crazy ****** should be shot! Oh wait, theres no death penalty in Canada. He'll probably get 5 years in prison, then be eligible for parole.

Yup, that is the joke called our justice system.

Karla homolka killed her own sister and two of her friends, then got away with a bull**** sentence. This guy will be on the streets very soon.

[n3wt]

I found this really disturbing as I've been on those long haul Greyhound Bus rides across the prairies.

[stevember]

Well, there is a hundred reason I can think of against the death penalty. But that is not what this thread is about.

We are now doing exactly what this guy wanted us to do, including myself for replying.

Killings like this in my opinion most of the time because the people are unable to become famous for any other reason, there will be books written about this guy in 100 years time, there will be a film made about this guy.

Yet, nobody will be able to name his victim.

That is what is wrong with the world, the media making this a sensation.

[jwjw1]

Still pretty sure on a bus without knowing what's going on and people screaming to get off the bus, you'd move your ass.

if this happened on an American Greyhound...his A** would have gotten shot!....LOL

but really..I have a concealed gun permit...and I'm sure I would have gotten off the bus too..to evaluate the situtition unless I was close enough when the stabbing was going on being that it was dark and all..but as soon as that guy approached the door to exit...I believe I would have taken out one of his Knees.

**in the military, I would have taken a head shot(instant drop)...but trust me...taking a round to the knee you pretty much drop everything and stop.

Edited August 2, 2008 by jwjw1

[stevember]

if this happened on an American Greyhound...his A** would have gotten shot!....LOL

Perhaps, that would be the case but you would need someone on the bus with a gun, and willing as well is able to use it in such a frightening ordeal.

I love peoples naivete in the world. It is incredibly easy to think what you would do or somebody else should have done after the fact.

Edited August 2, 2008 by stevember

[Brodel]

I don't think people can really criticise passengers for not doing something, unless they have been in a similar situation themselves and stepped in. It's easy to be an armchair hero.