七月 31, 2008
20080731/加拿大灰狗血案：狂汉割下邻座头颅
苹果日报/加拿大大草原区30日晚（周三）发生骇人血案，一名男子在一辆行驶中的灰狗巴士上，当 36名乘客面前，拿起大刀狂斩身边一名不认识的乘客60刀，然后更将死者的头颅斩下来。幸好司机和乘客及时逃离车厢，并将兇手困在巴士上，令他束手就擒。
该辆巴士当时载 37名乘客，由埃德蒙（Edmond）向东行驶，开往温尼伯（Winnipeg）途中。据目击惨剧的乘客卡顿（Garnet Caton）表示，巴士曾在加油站休息，大家都相安无事。当乘客返回车厢，继续行程，有的打瞌睡，有的听音乐。
血淋淋头颅掷向其他人
在8时45分左右，一名20多岁、身穿hip-hop服饰、貌似原住民的男子，听 MP3机，头倚玻璃窗在车尾附近睡觉。在寂静的车厢中，突然间传出悽厉的惨叫声，卡顿只见他身边一名1.82米高、90公斤重的男乘客，正拿大猎刀，猛向该名原住民狂砍50至60刀。卡顿形容兇徒表现冷静，行兇时恍如机械人。卡顿见状，立即向司机大声呼叫：「停车，有人被斩，所有人快些离开巴士。」所有乘客一窝蜂冲下车。他们隔玻璃窗，只见兇徒不断手起刀落，有几人大胆子，走上车厢想救人，但发现兇徒正在割掉死者的头颅，并企图抽取内臟，兇徒将血淋淋的头颅掷向他们，还企图袭击他们，吓得他们立即掉头跑下车厢。
司机拔掉车匙和将巴士门关上，然后用铁通栓住车门，阻止兇徒下车。兇徒见无法离开，用刀狂砍车门，并试图开车逃走，但见没车匙，惟有继续砍车门。这时一辆货车驶近，货车司机拿出铁通和铁鎚作武器，以防兇徒逃脱行兇，直至警员赶来，与兇徒对峙到晚上11时，兇徒才弃械就擒。
有乘客和小孩目睹这恐怖一幕，「呕吐大作，有的不断哭泣，有的仍犹有餘悸」，警方要派心理辅导员辅导他们。警方仍调查兇徒行兇动机。
Eye-witness accounts of bus slaying
Globe and Mail Update and Canadian Press
July 31, 2008 at 12:45 PM EDT
Cody Olmstead
I was sitting on the bus and we just left the town of Brandon and we were watching Zorro and the next thing I know I hear somebody scream and I look back and there’s some big guy holding this little fellow up between the bathroom door and the seat. And he was moving. It kind of looked like a fight but somebody said a knife, so we all run off the bus – he was getting stabbed. So I’m making sure everybody’s okay right outside and these other guys are containing the door. Then they went back on the bus and come off the bus and told everybody to get back ’cause they thought he was coming out. His hand come out the door with the knife, looked like it was trying to cut their… He went back on the bus and then they brace the door and he come back standing in the doorway with the head, looked at them, dropped the head, went back and started cutting buddy back up.
So they make us leave and go up by the tractor trailer and I’m standing by the tractor trailer and it’s starting to get dark and the cops are there and he comes up and he picks the head up and he’s waving it in the window. I just smoked a cigarette with this man [the victim] earlier, the head, and he’s shaking it back and forth at the window and it’s … intense right, it’s sickening.
Garnet Caton
He put his bags in the overhead compartment. He didn’t say a word to anybody. He seemed totally normal. He had sunglasses on. He sat down. And then, about a half an hour later, we heard this blood-curdling scream and turned around and the guy was standing up, stabbing this guy repeatedly, repeatedly, like, I dunno, must have been 40, 50 times in the neck and in the chest area. When he was attacking him, he was calm as like, it was like he was at the beach. He (was) totally calm, he didn’t say anything. There was no rage or, or anything. He was just like a robot stabbing the guy.
We exited the bus. Everybody got off the bus. But a few of us, me and the trucker and one of the Greyhound drivers went back on the bus to go see what was going on and that’s when we saw … he had the guy on the ground, he was cutting his head off and pretty much gutting him.
That trucker … he had a crowbar and we ran and got a hammer and stuff. Me and the other bus driver, there, tried to guard the door; put our bodies up against the door and, you know, waiting for him to come out and whatnot.
And he went back and brought the head to the front and pretty much, you know, displayed it to us like that and then dropped it on the ground in front of us. Very calmly, all very calmly, he was wearing sunglasses and like, you know, it was no big deal to him.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080731.wbustranscripts0731/BNStory/National
Decapitated bus passenger, man was ‘totally calm’ during attack
JOE FRIESEN
Globe and Mail Update
July 31, 2008 at 3:28 PM EDT
BRANDON, MAN. - A young man travelling on a Greyhound bus was stabbed to death and beheaded by a stranger in a horrifying act of apparently random violence.
The incident occurred on a bus travelling from Edmonton to Winnipeg just before 10 p.m. Wednesday.
A man of about 18 who was sleeping with headphones on was attacked by his seat mate, according to the man who sat in front of them.
He was stabbed repeatedly with a large hunting knife, sending blood spraying across the interior of the bus. The driver quickly pulled over and passengers fled out the front door.
The attacker then sawed off the victim’s head and carried it to the front of the bus.
The two did not apparently know one another. The victim boarded the bus in Edmonton, one witness said, and the attacker boarded in Manitoba.
A standoff with police ensued until about 1 a.m. local time.
A 40-year-old man was taken into custody.
Garnet Caton, 26, was sitting in the seat in front of the attacker.
“I was just reading a book and all of a sudden I heard a guy screaming. I turned around and the guy sitting right beside me was standing up and stabbing another guy with a big Rambo knife,” he said.
“Right in the throat. Repeatedly.”
The man wielding the knife had a shaved head and was wearing sunglasses, he said.
“He looked totally calm. He didn’t say a word I don’t think to anybody on the bus … nothing. Just totally calm.”
Mr. Caton said most passengers were sleeping at the time and didn’t realize what was happening.
“I screamed ’stop the bus!’ … Everybody got the hell off, and people at the front of the bus didn’t really understand what was going on. It almost turned into a trample scene there, everybody trying to get off the bus. But the guy didn’t care at all. He wasn’t concerned with anybody but the guy he was stabbing.
“The guy was totally calm. When he brought the head he looked at us and dropped it. It was like he was having a day at the beach. He couldn’t be bothered by anything else.”
Passenger Cody Olmstead from Kentville, N.S., said he had just smoked a cigarette with the victim at the last stop in Brandon. He said he believed the victim had gotten on the bus in Edmonton.
“We just left the town of Brandon and we were watching Zorro and the next thing I know I hear somebody scream and I look back and there’s some big guy holding this little fellow up between the bathroom door and the seat,” Mr. Olmstead told CBC News.
After passengers fled the bus and braced the door to keep the attacker inside, he returned with the victim’s head, Mr. Olmstead said.
“His hand come out the door with the knife,” he said. “He went back on the bus and then they [passengers] brace the door and he come back standing in the doorway with the head, looked at them, dropped the head, went back and started cutting buddy back up.”
As night fell and police surrounded the bus, the suspect taunted police officers, Mr. Olmstead said.
“He comes up and he picks the head up and he’s waving it in the window. I just smoked a cigarette with this man [the victim] earlier, the head, and he’s shaking it back and forth at the window and it’s … intense right, it’s sickening.”
RCMP Sgt. Steve Colwell provided few other details at a press briefing Thursday afternoon. He referred to the crime as a stabbing, but refused to confirm whether or not the victim had been decapitated. Sgt. Colwell said the suspect was arrested just before 1:30 a.m. when he tried to escape through a broken bus window after a prolonged standoff with police.
Sgt. Colwell said the suspect, who has yet to be charged, is believed to have been from out of province. He refused to name him or the victim. He also refused to confirm the victim’s age or where he is from.
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said the violent attack is a “horrific” incident and his heart goes to the family of the victim.
However, Mr. Day played down the possibility of enacting tough security measures in Canada’s bus terminals, similar to what already 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 caucus meeting, Mr. Day said he does not want to jeopardize the investigation, but added he wants to see the killer “convicted in court.”
“We want to make sure that the process is followed as aggressively as possible, a full legal process, and the perpetrator is definitely dealt with the full force of the law,” he said.
Greyhound called the event tragic but isolated.
A company spokeswoman said bus travel is the safest mode of transportation, despite the fact bus stations do not have metal detectors and other security measures used at airports.
“Due to the rural nature of our network, airport-type security is not practical. It’s a very different type of system,” Abby Wambaugh said from Greyhound’s corporate offices in Texas.
Suspect in beheading makes silent court appearance
22-year-old victim remembered as fun-loving
James Turner and Rosemary Westwood, Canwest News Service
Published: Thursday, July 31, 2008
PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE, Man. — As his accused killer stood shackled at the wrists and ankles to face a charge of second-degree murder Friday, the many friends and family of Tim McLean drew together in a circle of sorrow, trading e-mails and struggling to cope with their grief.
On Saturday, Alex McLean, Tim McLean’s uncle made a brief statement about his slain nephew flanked by other members of the McLean family.
“He was a little guy with a heart bigger than you could know. He made friends effortlessly, disliked no one and accepted everyone for who they were,” Mr. McLean said.
“He had the most infectious giggle and you can hear him laughing a mile away,” he added, holding back tears.
According to the statement, Tim McLean was returning home from working the Red River Exhibition.
“He was such a sweetheart. I cannot think of anybody who would not miss him,” said Mayme Martin, 19. She worked the carnival circuit with the 22-year-old Mr. McLean.
“To anybody who knew him, he was that bright, bubbly, happy guy. He was always out for fun. I already miss him.”
Vince Weiguang Li, the 40-year-old suspect in the gruesome stabbing and decapitation of Mr. McLean aboard a Greyhound bus in Manitoba Wednesday night, appeared in court in court in Portage la Prairie, Man., on Friday.
Mr. Li - described by his employer in Edmonton as a “normal guy” who may have been going through marital trouble - makes his next court appearance Tuesday.
Judge Rocky Pollack asked that Mr. Li be held in custody pending a court-ordered psychological evaluation. Mr. Pollack indicated he wasn’t prepared to make that order until Mr. Li has an opportunity to talk to a lawyer.
When asked by Mr. Pollack if he wanted a lawyer, Mr. Li said nothing, keeping his head down the entire time. However, when the judge asked him if he was exercising his right not to speak, Mr. Li reportedly nodded his head.
The Edmonton resident, who appeared in court with bandages on his hand and cuts and bruises to his face, was arrested Wednesday at the scene and charged early Friday with second-degree murder.
Despite being in police custody since 1:28 a.m. Thursday, as of Friday evening, Mr. Li had refused the advice of a lawyer.
RCMP said that, to date, their investigation has found Mr. Li has no known criminal record. Veteran Crown lawyer Larry Hodgson will prosecute in the case.
Mr. Li is being held in a Winnipeg detention centre and is under constant video surveillance.
Mr. Hodgson said Mr. Li will have to undergo a psychological assessment to determine whether he is fit to stand trial. He said there’s no indication there’s a language barrier in communicating with Mr. Li, but he’s been equally uncommunicative with police, only saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to their questions.
Mr. Hodgson said that in 18 years of public prosecutions, he’s never dealt with a case with “the horrific details of what we’ve all been hearing . . .
“I can’t think of another one (like it),” he said, adding that, at first glance, the attack struck him as “random.”
A woman at the McLean family home in Winnipeg said the family would not be making a statement Friday, as they deal with their grief.
“It’s not a good time right now,” she said.
Mr. McLean’s father, Tim McLean Sr., told CBC News his son had sent him a text message as the bus was leaving Brandon, Man. on the last leg of its journey, to ask if he could come home for the night. He told his son that, of course, he could come home. It was the last contact he had with him.
An autopsy on Mr. McLean was scheduled for Friday.
The Crown’s decision to go with a charge of second-degree murder does not necessarily set Mr. Li up for a softer sentence if he is convicted, said a legal expert.
“Second-degree murder carries a range of parole ineligibility of between 10 and 25 years. For first-degree murder, it’s a minimum 25 years,” said Isabel Grant of the University of British Columbia.
“So the actual sentence might not be very different from what it would be for first-degree.”
Mr. Grant said the Crown may have opted for second-degree because they weren’t convinced they could prove the intent and premeditation required for first-degree, given the seemingly random nature of the attack.
Mr. Li worked at an Edmonton McDonald’s restaurant. He also delivered newspapers for a distribution firm until he left his contract position in April, said his former employer Vincent Augert. Mr. Li returned to that job in July.
“I believe he was having some marital problems,” said Mr. Augert. When he met with Mr. Li to hire him back as a newspaper distributor, he said, “you could almost read between the lines” from the way Mr. Li was talking “that there was something not right there.”
Mr. Augert said Mr. Li called him three weeks ago, saying he had a job interview in Winnipeg. That was the last time Mr. Augert and Mr. Li spoke to each other.
“I’ve been doing this for 21 years, and I can judge the type of people we’re hiring,” he said. “He was just a normal guy, or so we thought. To read about this, it just totally gives me shivers. I’ve had shivers just the past couple of hours.”
Mr. Li delivered newspapers on Monday. On Tuesday, he “fell off the face of the earth,” Mr. Augert said.
Mr. Augert called Mr. Li’s cellphone. A woman calling herself Mr. Li’s wife called him back.
“She says to me that ‘I don’t know where he is, he had to leave town, it was an emergency,’ ” said Mr. Augert.
A report was circulating Friday that Mr. Li was a past member of the Canadian Forces. A Forces spokeswoman said there’s no record of him serving with the Canadian military.
“The name of the accused as it is quoted is not found in our current serving records, nor does it appear or show up in our past serving CF member records,” said Lt. Isabelle Riche.
Mr. McLean and Mayme Martin worked together, touring the continent with North American Midway Entertainment. She said she couldn’t believe the news when she first heard Mr. McLean was dead.
“I was like, I hope to God there’s another Tim McLean,” she said, sobbing softly.
“He was a sweetheart. He was tiny. We all called him Tiny Tim. He picked on me because I was smaller than him. But it was all in good fun. He’d never even hurt a fly. He wouldn’t even kill an ant if it was crawling up his leg.
“He was that guy who all the girls said he was their best friend. And it was true because he was such a sweetheart. You couldn’t think of him as anything but a friend. I can’t think of anyone that didn’t like him.”
“There’s really nothing to feel other than it shouldn’t have been Tim. He did nothing wrong. There was no reason why it should have been Tim.”
RCMP have given few details about the baffling homicide.
Passengers described fleeing in terror from a Greyhound bus outside Portage la Prairie - 85 kilometres west of Winnipeg - as a passenger suddenly stabbed the man sleeping next to him, decapitated him and waved the severed head at horrified witnesses standing outside.
The extreme violence of the act and its apparent lack of motive led to immediate speculation about the attacker’s mental state. Patrick Baillie, a Calgary-based forensic psychologist, suggested “psychosis or substance abuse - potentially a combination of the two.
“This is apparently bizarre behaviour. No provocation, no history between victim and offender, so I’m thinking there was something going on in the offender’s mind that led to this attack,” he said.
He suggested some “trigger event” inside the bus could have inspired the it.
“It could have been a physical appearance of the victim caused a flashback to some memory . . . what the victim was wearing . . . the music coming out of the headphones . . . there has to have been some particular trigger that led to this kind of an outburst. When you’ve got a perpetrator and a victim who are absolute strangers to each other, clearly it’s not personal, because there’s no history.”
That absence of any logical root to the act, Mr. Baillie said, is what makes it so terrifying.
“We all like to have control over what’s going on in our environment, and the difficulty is, we don’t know who the person is that is sitting next to us,” he said. “Again, what leads to people being concerned about it is, so what am I supposed to do? And it appears to be entirely random and so the answer is there’s not much you can do.”
The attack Wednesday night left 34 men, women and children stranded on the shoulder of the Trans-Canada Highway about 85 kilometres west of Winnipeg, watching while the bus driver, a passenger, and the driver of a passing truck shut the crazed attacker inside the bus with the mangled victim.
“He didn’t do anything to provoke the guy,” said Garnet Caton, 26, a passenger on the bus, which originated in Edmonton and was bound for Winnipeg. “The guy just took a knife out and stabbed him, started stabbing him like crazy and cut his head off.”
“Some people were puking, some people were crying, other people were in shock. . . . Everybody was running, screaming off the bus.”
Mr. Caton said Mr. Li was only on the bus for a brief time, after boarding in western Manitoba.
Another passenger, Cody Olmstead, 21, told reporters he had smoked a cigarette with Mr. McLean earlier in the trip.
He said Mr. McLean boarded the bus in Edmonton and was going to Winnipeg.
Mr. Caton told a TV station the attacker had changed seats to sit next to his victim just before the killing.
He said the attacker seemed oblivious to others when the stabbing occurred, adding he was struck by how calm the man was.
“There was no rage or anything. He was like a robot, stabbing the guy,” he said.
Mr. Caton said he and other passengers prevented the attacker from getting off the blood-soaked bus by threatening him with makeshift weapons - a hammer and a crowbar.
“We we’re telling him, ‘Stay put, stay put, stay there, don’t try to come out.’ He tried to get the bus working and the bus driver disabled the bus somehow in the back. I’m not sure how he did it, and at that point, I think the police showed up,” he said.
After the killing, the passengers were taken to Brandon, Man., to be interviewed by police and to stay overnight at a hotel there.
Edmonton Journal, with files from the Brandon Sun
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=695403
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