Posts: 7519 |
Nikki Posted Wed 06 Aug, 2008 5:58 PM |
Has anyone heard about this? I don't even know what to say...it's horrifying.
From the August 6 Times Online:
He is accused of one of the most gruesome crimes of recent years – decapitating and cannibalising another passenger on board a Greyhound bus – but when Vince Weiguang Li appeared in a Canadian courtroom on Tuesday he gave no reason for the attack, uttering just three words: “Please kill me”.
Li, who immigrated to Canada from China in 2004, is accused of killing 22-year-old carnival worker Tim McLean in front of fellow passengers on a Greyhound bus which was travelling along a remote highway from Edmonton, Alberta, to Winnipeg, Manitoba, last Wednesday night. He is charged with second degree murder.
Appearing in court in Manitoba yesterday, Li, 40, was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation as prosecutors revealed that he had a plastic bag containing his victim's ear, nose and part of a mouth in his pocket when police officers arrested him.
Prosecutor Joyce Dalmyn said Li, who was armed with a pair of scissors, was seen by officers “cutting body parts from the victim and eating those body parts” and had carried the victim's severed head back and forth on the bus “taunting” officers.
She said the only response police received from Li when they approached him was: “I have to stay on the bus forever”.
Ms Dalmyn said that in an interview with police after his arrest Li had declined to speak for the most part but on four occasions had indicated in a low voice that he was guilty.
The gruesome and apparently unprovoked murder occurred while some of the 37 passengers slept and others watched the movie The Legend of Zorro as the bus travelled along a desolate stretch of the TransCanada Highway.
Horrified passengers fled the bus as Li began stabbing McLean, who was sitting next to him and was said to be sleeping and wearing headphones when he was attacked.
Witnesses said Li then severed McLean’s head and displayed it to some of the passengers outside the bus before he began hacking at the body.
According to a leaked police tape, one officer at the scene reported seeing Li cutting off pieces of the victim's body and eating them.
Ms Dalmyn said police are looking into information that Li may have spent as many as four days in a psychiatric facility prior to the attack.
However a church pastor who hired Li when he first immigrated to Canada with his wife, Anna, said that he had never showed any signs of anger or emotional problems when he worked there as a custodian.
Since his arrest, Li has declined to speak to prosecutors and his court-appointed attorney.
Instead, when asked by Provincial Court of Manitoba Judge Michel Chartier if he wanted a lawyer, Li shook his head and quietly said: “please kill me”.
Ms Dalmyn said Li is due back in court September 8 when prosecutors hope he will have had a psychiatric assessment.
“Then we can look to consider whether in the psychiatrists opinion the accused is fit to stand trial and whether we are proceeding at that point or whether there are fitness concerns that need to be canvassed by the court,” she said.
In the wake of the attack, Greyhound has scrapped a billboard ad campaign that extolled the relaxing upside of bus travel which had the unfortunate punch line stating: “There's a reason you've never heard of 'bus rage’”. |
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Posts: 8142 |
minnmess Posted Wed 06 Aug, 2008 6:12 PM |
yup. it's all anyone is talking about here and has been on the front cover of every newspaper for a week.
It is really disturbing and scary and makes you question every move. Im going to Ottawa in a few weeks which may include a day trip to Montreal...that bus i was going to take for the 2 hours trip? completely rethinking it. Is that rational? probably not since this is like a 1 in 1000000000 thing, but it is scary and horrible and sad. |
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Posts: 7519 |
Nikki Posted Wed 06 Aug, 2008 6:23 PM |
minnmess wrote: yup. it's all anyone is talking about here and has been on the front cover of every newspaper for a week.
It is really disturbing and scary and makes you question every move. Im going to Ottawa in a few weeks which may include a day trip to Montreal...that bus i was going to take for the 2 hours trip? completely rethinking it. Is that rational? probably not since this is like a 1 in 1000000000 thing, but it is scary and horrible and sad.
It's very strange what the US media decides to pick up on and just ignore. This hasn't really been talked about that much here but it's been buzzing around the newsroom today and I couldn't believe what I was hearing so I had to look it up online for myself. You're right, it's a 1 in a million chance of something so bizarre happening again, but I completely understand your concern and I'd worry about riding the bus now too. I'd be so freaked out.
Remember the father and son sniper killers from a few years back that were traveling from state to state shooting random people from the trunk of their car? Kids leaving school, people pumping gas...I was really afraid for a while to walk across open parking lots and stuff like that. :/
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Posts: 3258 |
mili Posted Wed 06 Aug, 2008 6:24 PM |
When something unthinkable happens in public transport, it's natural, that you don't fancy using it. I didn't feel too good about flying after 911 and after Estonia sank it took me years before I took a Baltic ferry, and even then I was petrified most of the time (didn't sleep too well that night). A helicopter crash bankrupted the company (a regular Helsinki-Tallinn route) and it took years to rebuild the business and customer trust.
I still use Helsinki underground occationally, even though a nutter killed a stranger with an axe there. I didn't like those trains before the incident, and even less after it. |
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Posts: 8142 |
minnmess Posted Wed 06 Aug, 2008 7:07 PM |
I probably have to take some form of public transportation to Montreal. Im driving to Ottawa, but dont know montreal at all, so i was just going to bus or train it. Now i will probably take the train which is in no way safer, but seeing as it is different, it seems safer! I was on a GO Train (umm, like a commuter train i guess. Like short distance kinda thing) to Toronto the day after this happened and they have tvs in there with the news on and I was thinking "why dont they have more security on buses?" Im thinking this while sitting on this train which has no security checks or metal detectors or anything. Same as the bus! Yet that didnt click into my head for a while.
Nikki, that shooting thing was freaky a few years back. I dont understand people and what makes them do things. They are saying this guy might have just snapped, but why was he travelling on a bus with a hunting knife??? |
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Posts: 7519 |
Nikki Posted Wed 06 Aug, 2008 7:18 PM |
minnmess wrote: I probably have to take some form of public transportation to Montreal. Im driving to Ottawa, but dont know montreal at all, so i was just going to bus or train it. Now i will probably take the train which is in no way safer, but seeing as it is different, it seems safer! I was on a GO Train (umm, like a commuter train i guess. Like short distance kinda thing) to Toronto the day after this happened and they have tvs in there with the news on and I was thinking "why dont they have more security on buses?" Im thinking this while sitting on this train which has no security checks or metal detectors or anything. Same as the bus! Yet that didnt click into my head for a while.
Nikki, that shooting thing was freaky a few years back. I dont understand people and what makes them do things. They are saying this guy might have just snapped, but why was he travelling on a bus with a hunting knife???
I bet all the security will change now when passengers get on buses and trains. It should. Why so much security for planes and nothing at all for busses and trains? Makes zero sense.
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Posts: 8142 |
minnmess Posted Wed 06 Aug, 2008 7:51 PM |
Nikki wrote: minnmess wrote: I probably have to take some form of public transportation to Montreal. Im driving to Ottawa, but dont know montreal at all, so i was just going to bus or train it. Now i will probably take the train which is in no way safer, but seeing as it is different, it seems safer! I was on a GO Train (umm, like a commuter train i guess. Like short distance kinda thing) to Toronto the day after this happened and they have tvs in there with the news on and I was thinking "why dont they have more security on buses?" Im thinking this while sitting on this train which has no security checks or metal detectors or anything. Same as the bus! Yet that didnt click into my head for a while.
Nikki, that shooting thing was freaky a few years back. I dont understand people and what makes them do things. They are saying this guy might have just snapped, but why was he travelling on a bus with a hunting knife???
I bet all the security will change now when passengers get on buses and trains. It should. Why so much security for planes and nothing at all for busses and trains? Makes zero sense.
I was wondering what would change, but there is only so much you can do. Search everyone before they get on the city bus? It's just as dangerous as greyhounds, and perhaps more so if you are packed on a busy bus.
erg. i hate it. i hate it all. |
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Posts: 2782 |
Hanne Posted Wed 06 Aug, 2008 8:03 PM |
Sounds like he's skizofrenic or something like that. He has some voices in his head telling him to do this, or an urge he can't control. Maybe he wants to die cos he can't control the urge. Dunno. It's hard to know what possessed him to do this.
I don't know whether this episode could keep me from using public transport. You could just as easily get mugged and stabbed in the street, or sit in a bus like the one at the terror attacks in London. You just never know.
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Posts: 3258 |
mili Posted Wed 06 Aug, 2008 10:08 PM |
Hanne wrote: Sounds like he's skizofrenic or something like that. He has some voices in his head telling him to do this, or an urge he can't control. Maybe he wants to die cos he can't control the urge. Dunno. It's hard to know what possessed him to do this.
I don't know whether this episode could keep me from using public transport. You could just as easily get mugged and stabbed in the street, or sit in a bus like the one at the terror attacks in London. You just never know.
I tend to sit near the front on buses and trams, especially at night. There's more chance of the driver noticing if something funny is going on. Also, troublemakers often sit at the back. |
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Posts: 1667 |
Typing to Reach You Posted Wed 06 Aug, 2008 10:22 PM |
Freaky stuff. Might make a good 'true story' horror film...
Seriously though, you don't need to avoid public transport because of this one incident lol. You're probably about 50,000 times more likely to die in a crash... although I'm not sure that's reassuring.  |
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Peewee Posted Wed 06 Aug, 2008 10:25 PM |
| Exactly what I was about to say! Make a good Horror film! UGH!!! GROSS! |
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Posts: 7404 |
Turtleneck Posted Wed 06 Aug, 2008 10:44 PM |
Maybe Greyhound needs to offer snacks on the bus. A guy gets hungry going from Alberta to Manitoba. It's a long way.
Ewwwwww, seriously, that guy is a sicko. But I agree with TTRY, you are more likely to die in a car accident than be murdered on public transportation.
You can get killed doing anything, really! |
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Posts: 258 |
physke Posted Wed 06 Aug, 2008 11:40 PM |
Peewee wrote: Exactly what I was about to say! Make a good Horror film! UGH!!! GROSS!
Psycho Killer can be the soundtrack... :) |
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Posts: 239 |
Steph_canuck Posted Thu 07 Aug, 2008 1:23 AM |
Yeah, its the only thing people are really talking about. Sorry to grim up the story even more, but it was just released today that the accused was also carrying a baggy of the guys ears, nose, and mouth in his pocket when they arrested him... Im afraid to say Im a bit nervous too minnmess, I might be taking the train back to school...
Also, the police radio of the incident was leaked onto the net...Im a bit curious http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt1kDii1Unw |
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minnmess Posted Thu 07 Aug, 2008 2:31 AM |
Steph_canuck wrote: Yeah, its the only thing people are really talking about. Sorry to grim up the story even more, but it was just released today that the accused was also carrying a baggy of the guys ears, nose, and mouth in his pocket when they arrested him... Im afraid to say Im a bit nervous too minnmess, I might be taking the train back to school...
Also, the police radio of the incident was leaked onto the net...Im a bit curious http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt1kDii1Unw
oh i forgot about the bag thing. BLAH
its not like i will stop talking public transportation, i just hate having to 2nd guess it. I liked my safe naive little world. |
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