Man stabs and decapitates fellow passenger on Greyhound bus

[harbringer]

http://www.wkyc.com/news/national/news_article.aspx?storyid=94038&catid=22

PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE, Manitoba -- As horrified travelers watched, a Greyhound Canada bus passenger repeatedly stabbed and then decapitated the young man sitting beside him, who was sleeping with his head leaning against the window, a witness said Thursday.

"There was a blood-curdling scream. I was just reading my book and all of a sudden I heard it," said Garnet Caton, who was sitting in front of the two men. "It was like something between a dog howling and a baby crying, I guess you could say. I don't think it will leave me for a while."

Caton said he shouted at the other passengers, many of whom also were sleeping, to leave.

"Everybody got off the bus. Me and a trucker that stopped and the Greyhound driver ran up to the door to maybe see if the guy was still alive or we could help or something like that," Caton told CNN. "And when we all got up, we saw that the guy was cutting off the guy's head. ... When he saw us, he came back to the front of the bus, told the driver to shut the door. He pressed the button and the door shut, but it didn't shut in time, and the guy was able to get his knife out and take a swipe at us," Caton said.

The incident happened late Wednesday west of Portage la Prairie, but a standoff between the attacker and police lasted into early Thursday.

The bus was traveling along the Trans-Canada Highway from Edmonton, Alberta, to Winnipeg, Manitoba, and was about 45 minutes from its destination when the attack occurred, said Greyhound spokeswoman Abby Wambaugh in Dallas, Texas.

Witnesses told Canadian TV that the attacker was wielding a butcher-type knife. They said the trucker who stopped provided wrenches and crowbars to several of the men, who were able to keep the suspect on the bus until police came. After the standoff, police took the man into custody.

Wambaugh declined comment, except to "confirm that there was an incident on one of our buses."

"I don't want to compromise the investigation," she told CNN. The incident occurred on the first of two Greyhound Canada buses that were traveling together, she said. The bus was carrying 37 passengers. Those passengers not directly involved in the incident were transferred to the second bus, she said. Others were taken to a hotel in Brandon, where they were met by Greyhound managers and police, Wambaugh said.

Once they are released, Greyhound will take them by bus to Winnipeg, and "we will do whatever is required to help them -- and that includes counseling," she added.

Maybe it's time for us Canadians to put up some form of security on these buses, since essentially, anyone can now bring on a weapon on to them. The fact that someone was able to just put a knife in his pocket and brutally murder someone on a bus is fairly alarming.

[Zoost]

They shouldn't allow murderers in public transport, that would be more effective.

[Butts]

Wow. I'm speechless... thats absolutely ridiculous.

[Creaphis]

Additional security for buses is not necessarily a practical solution, and for that matter could be counter-productive, as that would serve to remind people of this one (extremely isolated) incident and would encourage general feelings of fear. Putting metal detectors in the hopes of making this sort of thing impossible would be like ripping a large chunk of skin off of your arm in the hopes of keeping a rash from recurring - it might work, but will you really feel better?

I'm the sort of guy who wishes to tackle root causes instead of surface symptoms (eg. build more schools and fewer prisons). However, I'm not sure there's even a significant larger problem here. It's just one crazy guy who would have been dangerous without the knife. Lock him up, problem solved.

I find the international attention this story is getting somewhat peculiar, especially when those from other countries feel it necessary to promote their own flavours of justice. I'm sorry, but we don't execute our criminals here.

By the way, I live about an hour from where it happened.

If you want to see some actual local footage then Google "Winnipeg Free Press" before the top story changes.

[Death-Destiny]

That's really ridiculous and random. The last thing I'd expect to happen to me is the stranger sitting next to me on the bus assaulting me for the hell of it. I'm stunned to hear this story. I bet the attacker is insane and will end up in an asylum.

I think the best thing to do is probably to mandate bus drivers to carry firearms or something. Bad guys will bring weapons wherever they please regardless of the law, so adding more security would just inconvenience the law abiding citizens who don't plan to behead strangers at their leisure.

Oh, and since Creaphis brought it up, I don't believe in executions. The criminal is rendered harmless the moment he or she is arrested. The only thing executions are for, IMO, is revenge, but doesn't that make you just as cruel as whomever you're killing?... not that revenge brings back the innocents who died in the process anyway.

But anyway, I do think people need to be a bit more prepared for the occassional insane murderer, so lives are not lost without reason before they are locked up.

[Creaphis]

I suppose that bus drivers could be armed, but... you know one thing that I really like about living here? We're not all packing heat, all of the time.

[CODOR]

Zoost said:
They shouldn't allow murderers in public transport, that would be more effective.

They should ask people before they get on: "are you planning on killing anyone on this bus?" "Sure, man! Wouldn't you have the urge to kill after a four-day bus ride?"

The two guys had a smoke together earlier in the trip, although it doesn't say how well they knew each other: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2008/07/31/greyhound-transcanada.html

[Death-Destiny]

Creaphis said:

I suppose that bus drivers could be armed, but... you know one thing that I really like about living here? We're not all packing heat, all of the time.

In the ideal setup, the bus-driver would be a just, virtuous person with the best intentions of his passengers at heart. However, if they were all armed, I'd bet there'd be a bunch of trigger-happy bus drivers that might over-react now and again, so I doubt I'd feel much safer, but I don't like the idea that my seatmate can murder me whenever he or she wants and no one would be able to do anything about it, since when I die I don't restart with 100% health and 50 bullets and therefore my one life is important despite the infrequency of events such as this.

[Creaphis]

CODOR said:

The two guys had a smoke together earlier in the trip, although it doesn't say how well they knew each other: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2008/07/31/greyhound-transcanada.html

You misunderstood the article - it's a different passenger who smoked with the victim, not the murderer.

[CODOR]

Creaphis said:
You misunderstood the article - it's a different passenger who smoked with the victim, not the murderer.

It mentions later in the article that the attacker was also having a smoke at some point with a different passenger. Somehow the two events got mixed-up in my mind...

[Creaphis]

Death-Destiny said:

In the ideal setup, the bus-driver would be a just, virtuous person with the best intentions of his passengers at heart. However, if they were all armed, I'd bet there'd be a bunch of trigger-happy bus drivers that might over-react now and again, so I doubt I'd feel much safer, but I don't like the idea that my seatmate can murder me whenever he or she wants and no one would be able to do anything about it, since when I die I don't restart with 100% health and 50 bullets and therefore my one life is important despite the infrequency of events such as this.

The different between the ideal setup and real setup is certainly the problem, as it is the problem for every political system, every economic system... but that's another topic. In addition to the possibility of there being bus drivers who would overreact to all possible dangers when armed, arming bus staff would encourage them to behave more aggressively, would probably darken the mood of your trip, and puts more guns on our buses. An extra gun anywhere has the chance of killing someone accidentally, or of being lost or stolen towards evil ends.

I understand that you want to as protected from violent death as possible. However, those with flawed mental machinery do not only inhabit large vehicles; this could have happened anywhere. This gives you a choice; you can either carry your own weapons all the time in the hopes that this will make you safer from whoever they are at the moment, or just hope for the best and enjoy life while it lasts. The rate of gun murders in the US, and the other negative consequences of being a culture of fear, make me feel that the latter policy is better for everyone.

I'm fairly content in situations that others may perceive as dangerous. Even if I'm in constant risk of getting gruesomely stabbed to death, I'm happy to be completely vulnerable, because by carrying no weapons, at least I'm not part of the problem.

[myk]

I don't think any general measure should be taken. The next kill could occur in another public place; what'll people do, add more security there too?

As shocking as the incident is, it's much, much more likely for one to die from a car crash, cancer and disease, or criminal violence in less public places.

[Richo Rosai]

As horrified travelers watched, a Greyhound Canada bus passenger repeatedly stabbed and then decapitated the young man sitting beside him, who had been sleeping with his head leaning against the window, a witness said Thursday.

[Kira]

If a measure is took to arm a bus driver, then you can expect another kind of problem :P
e.g. : a bus driver kill few of the passengers before to commit a suicide because he has family problems and so on... What to do now ? :P

Anyway, I agree with most of you : it has happened, well, but it doesn't means that security measures should be adopted. As myk said it can happen everywhere and everytime.
So, live in a bubble if you are permanently scared.

Though this depends on how this guy has lived, and what was his problems... often we fall in a critical problem of society hidden by the fear implied by TV news.
So if this was explored I guess we would have more chances to fix, at least partially, the problem.

[Udderdude]

Some pile of shit has a misfiring neuron in their broken brain, and suddenly you're dead. Isn't that great? :p

[Janderson]

What I find more disturbing in tales such as this, where people are being killed, maimed or raped in public, is that nobody seems to have the courage to help. They pretend it's not happening or flee despite greatly outnumbering the offender.

[DooMAD]

Wow, as if Greyhound buses didn't suck enough already. :/

[geekmarine]

Funny how that works out - one extremely rare, extremely bizarre incident on one bus, and suddenly everyone's demanding greater security.

[Sharessa]

I think I'm going to be sick.

Any kind of additional security isn't going to be the answer. Just look at the state of airlines these days. Not worth going through that much trouble for something that happened once in about 5 billion bus trips.

[Kirby]

Dang, and I thought nothing exciting went on in Canada :P

It's nearly impossible to take measures against this kind of thing the same way it's nearly impossible to find a better means of rooting out bad kids who might go ballistic i.e. Virginia Tech. You can implement security checkpoints and scans, but the crazies will still make it through because you won't truly have a means to scan the person getting on.

[The Ultimate DooMer]

geekmarine said:

Funny how that works out - one extremely rare, extremely bizarre incident on one bus, and suddenly everyone's demanding greater security.

And ofc the government will be more than happy to oblige. Hello police state.

[alexz721]

Janderson said:

What I find more disturbing in tales such as this, where people are being killed, maimed or raped in public, is that nobody seems to have the courage to help. They pretend it's not happening or flee despite greatly outnumbering the offender.

Yeah, that was the one thought that crossed my mind.

[Creaphis]

Janderson said:

What I find more disturbing in tales such as this, where people are being killed, maimed or raped in public, is that nobody seems to have the courage to help. They pretend it's not happening or flee despite greatly outnumbering the offender.

I wouldn't criticize the passengers for how they behaved. Disaster may have been averted if the killer could have been tackled to the ground right away, but even though this action seems like the obvious choice in retrospect, it's just extremely difficult for any human to work up the courage to do that. According to the articles, it sounds like at least a few passengers worked to quickly evacuate the bus and make sure everyone (else) got out alive, which I think is commendable under the circumstances.

Also, I admit that I've imagined myself in this situation, disabling the attacker (with a large blunt object, preferably) but I also know enough about myself and about human nature in general to know that I would immediately want to distance myself from the incident as quickly as possible.

Now, if everyone had sat, paralyzed in their seats, waiting for their turn to be decapitated, or if they had all attempted to scuttle off the bus with no concern for the other passengers, jamming up all the exits in the process, then I would definitely be more disgusted by their behaviour (and you hear examples of both of these sorts of victim behaviour all too often).

[Coopersville]

Brutal. Like something out of JTHM.

But, yeah, the scum of the Earth ride Greyhound. I keep at least a BFG with me whenever I'm on one of those buses.

[Sharessa]

There's also the very real danger that anyone who tries to tackle him will get a butcher knife right to their forehead. Tackling armed opponents is always very risky.

Anyway, turns out this guy is Asian (Chinese I think). How long until this stirs up some kind of anti-immigrant sentiment?

[MikeyScoots]

Funny how this shit happens immediately after I get off a greyhound bus 4 days ago. For all who haven't rode a greyhound, do know its incredibly easy to smuggle drugs, alcohol and weapons. There's no bag check, there's no metal detectors, just get on the bus and go. Only reason I went was because the cost of round trip was 130, cant beat that.

[Zoost]

Creaphis said:

You misunderstood the article - it's a different passenger who smoked with the victim, not the murderer.

Anyhow smoking kills, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0FOYQFpbvI

[AndrewB]

alexz721 said:

Yeah, that was the one thought that crossed my mind.

Consider the overwhelming state of shock that the passengers would have been in. Also consider that anyone who intervened would certainly be stabbed or possibly killed themselves. It's perfectly understandable how no one helped. IMO short of shooting the guy in the head (which is impossible because nobody carries guns), there was absolutely nothing anyone could do to prevent the murder.

Danarchy said:

Anyway, turns out this guy is Asian (Chinese I think). How long until this stirs up some kind of anti-immigrant sentiment?

Not going to happen. This didn't happen in Texas.

[Shaikoten]

Hi, I just rode on a coach bus today and I didn't feel like my life was in much danger.

[Tango]

Janderson said:

What I find more disturbing in tales such as this, where people are being killed, maimed or raped in public, is that nobody seems to have the courage to help. They pretend it's not happening or flee despite greatly outnumbering the offender.

Seriously I was wondering the same thing as I read that. That's horrible. I mean I can't say I'd be brave enough to help but I'm a pansy. That would have been awesome if the rest of the people on the bus saved that guy.

The whole thing is really sad though :(