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Man decapitates another man with Rambo knife on Greyhound bus.
Zorvan
Member CommonPosts: 8,912
www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/07/31/greyhound-transcanada.html
40-year-old suspect held in gruesome Manitoba bus killing
Passenger decapitated, witnesses say; story contains graphic details
Last Updated: Thursday, July 31, 2008 | 4:16 PM ET
CBC News
A 40-year-old man is in custody in Manitoba after a young man was stabbed — and, witnesses said, decapitated — aboard a Greyhound bus travelling through the province overnight.
Police officers spent the night examining a Greyhound bus where a passenger was reportedly stabbed and decapitated late Wednesday. (John Woods/Canadian Press)The RCMP would not confirm the reports of beheading, saying only that a stabbing took place around 8:30 p.m. CT on an eastbound Greyhound bus on the Trans-Canada Highway about 20 kilometres west of Portage la Prairie.
The suspect, believed to be from outside Manitoba, was arrested early Thursday morning after a standoff lasting several hours and remains in RCMP custody .
Charges have not yet been laid, and the suspect has not yet been interviewed, said RCMP spokesman Staff Sgt. Steve Colwell, adding that he could release no further information on the investigation.
The RCMP declined to identify either the suspect or the victim.
Thirty-seven passengers and a driver were aboard the bus en route to Winnipeg from Edmonton.
Passenger Cody Olmstead, 21, told CBC News he had smoked a cigarette earlier in the trip with the victim, whom he described as a man in his late teens or early 20s. The victim got on the bus in Edmonton, he said.
"I never took the time to know him, but he seemed to be OK, right, just a kid," said Olmstead, a Nova Scotia man who had been taking the bus from Alberta to Montreal.
"He just said he was going to Winnipeg … going home, that's where he was from."
'Blood-curdling scream'
Garnet Caton, who was sitting in the seat in front of the victim, said he saw the attacker stab his seatmate, a young man sleeping with his headphones on.
Caton said he heard a "blood-curdling scream" and turned around to see the attacker holding a large "Rambo" hunting knife above the victim, "continually stabbing him in the chest area."
"He must have stabbed him 50 times or 60 times," said Caton.
"Like, just everywhere, arms, legs, neck, chest, guts, wherever he could swing it, he got it," said Olmstead.
"It looked kind of like a scuffle or an argument, you know, and then somebody's, like, 'Knife! Knife! Run!' so I was running up the alleyway, slapping people telling them to get going, move, get off the bus. I got pushed over, some lady got pushed over, I was just making sure everybody was OK, and we all got off the bus," said Olmstead
As panicked passengers fled the bus, "the attacker was over top of the victim … continually cutting him. I think the victim was gone at that point," Caton said.
Trio tried to check on victim
Caton, the driver and a trucker who had stopped at the scene later boarded the vehicle to see if the victim was still alive.
Garnet Caton said he heard a 'blood-curdling scream' and turned around to see a man repeatedly stabbing the passenger sitting next to him. (CBC)"When we came back on the bus, it was visible at the end of the bus he was cutting the guy's head off and pretty much gutting him up," said Caton.
The attacker ran at them, Caton said, and they ran out of the bus, holding the door shut as he tried to slash at the trio.
When the attacker tried to drive the bus away, the driver disabled the vehicle, Caton said.
"While we were watching the door, he calmly walks up to the front with the head in his hand and the knife and just calmly stares at us and drops the head right in front of us," said Caton.
"They did an awesome thing, holding him in there, because if not, what would have happened?" said Olmstead.
RCMP crisis teams, including negotiators, communicated with the suspect for several hours while he was on the bus. Around 1:30 a.m., he attempted to jump from a bus window and was subdued and arrested, RCMP said.
Acted 'like he was a robot'
Caton described the attacker as surprisingly calm. "It was like he was at the beach or something. There was no rage in him. He wasn't swearing or cursing or anything. It was just like he was a robot or something."
Police cruisers arrived about 10 minutes after the attack began, he estimates, and officers began directing passengers to school buses to take them to a hotel in Brandon.
"While we were waiting on the side of the road, [the attacker] was taunting the police with the head in his hand," said Caton.
Caton described the attacker as appearing "totally normal" earlier in the journey, even chatting with a young woman as he smoked a cigarette during a break.
But when he got back on the bus, he moved his belongings from the front to a seat beside the victim in the back and about 20 minutes later began attacking the man, said Caton. "He didn't say anything to the victim at all," said Caton.
Counsellors, chaplains aid passengers
A six-year-old and other children were among the passengers who saw the horrific incident unfold, said Caton.
"It was pretty traumatic," he said, adding that some passengers said they have been unable to sleep or eat since it happened.
"It's disturbing," Olmstead agreed, adding that images of the previous night haunted him when he tried to fall asleep early Thursday morning. "I closed my eyes and I seen him in the window there, just like a madman."
Bev Cumming, head of acute care services for the Brandon Regional Health Authority, said chaplains and psychiatric nurses have been working with dozens of passengers on the bus since they arrived in Brandon.
Recent violent incidents that have occurred on Greyhound buses in Canada:
- Dec. 24, 2007: A 27-year-old man is stabbed after an argument with another passenger on a bus near Tweed, Ont.
- Feb. 16, 2007: A group of people in their 20s attack and beat the driver of a bus in Lloydminster, Alta.
- Dec. 23, 2000: A man attempts to take control of a bus near Thunder Bay, Ont. Thirty-two passengers are injured when the bus lands on its side in a ditch. One woman later dies of her injuries.
- March, 2000. A pregnant woman is attacked by a man on a bus in London, Ont. The woman suffered injuries to her arms.
"When you see something as horrifying as that, the brain locks on to those images. It's very difficult to release those images," Cumming said.
"The assistance that people will get will be along the lines of coping in the immediate phase, learning what to do to reduce the profound effect this experience will have."
Tim Sen, president of Trauma Management Group, which offers counselling and post-traumatic support in Ontario, said it will take time for bus passengers to come to terms with what they've seen.
"They will experience very, very vivid flashbacks of that occurrence. Those will usually dissipate over a period of time, but right now it's going to be very vivid [as] they're still dealing with the shock and processing this horrific event," he said.
"There's not a right or wrong way to go through this. Some people will still be in shock and being very flat in presentation, like nothing's happened. Other people may not get out of bed and not want to move for a while, or be having what we call very acute [responses], so they'll be maybe crying and not wanting to calm down at all. Everybody's going to go through this very difficult journey in a very different way."
For children on the bus, Sen said, the response will depend on the age and maturity of the child. Generally, the key message caregivers should try to convey is that the situation is over and the child is now safe.
If intense feelings and emotions and symptoms such as flashbacks don't subside within a few months, Sen said, the passengers should consider seeking professional help.
Investigation is in 'full motion': minister
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day commented on the killing, saying that like most Canadians, he was horrified to hear witness accounts of the homicide.
"The horrific nature of it is probably one of a kind in Canadian history," he told reporters late Thursday morning in Lévis, Que.
The minister said he didn't want to say anything that would compromise the investigation, but "I can assure people that everything is in full motion and momentum to getting to the bottom of this incident."
Questioned about whether weapons regulations should be put into place for buses, Day said it would be premature to look at such precautionary measures but added that the legal process will be followed as "aggressively as possible."
Greyhound spokeswoman Abby Wambaugh said the company is examining security on buses.
"We are working with Transport Canada to review inter-city bus security," she said.
"Due to the rural nature of our network, airport-type security is not practical for bus travel. It's just a completely different system."
With files from the Canadian Press
Comments
God, that is beyond horrible. I sincerely hope that nutjob gets the death penalty....
Thing that gets me is: a bus full of passengers and not one person tried to save the young man.
well I just read this on msn and the part where he moved to the front of the bus when the other passangers had blocked the door and he just stood there with the head in his hand before dropping it is like something out of a horror movie,this is 1 sick guy.
Also zorvan until you are in a situation like that it is impossible to say how you would react,If I was on my own then I would like to think I would try to help the guy but if I was with my wife I would make sure she was safe 1st,but then again I wouldnt know for sure until(and hope I never am)in a situation like that.
If someone had came up to me in 1980 when I was on my Atari 2600 and said we will be playing games with thousands of people at the same time.I guess my response would have been,"but I only have 2 joysticks"
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/235780/page/8
You would go after a psycho with a hunting knife, who has already proven he is willing to kill, with nothing but your bare hands?
The sad thing is that one person with a concealed/carry permit and a handgun could have saved that kid's life.
And do the person who mentioned the death penalty....ain't gonna happen, Canada doesn't have it.
I understand that. I can't say for sure that I would do anything myself, but like you I hope that I would/could. Doesn't change the sadness of the situation.
Another thing, since you mentioned his demeanor. From the description the witnesses gave of his behaviour, if I was watching it in a movie the guy would be brainwashed/sleeper. No conspiracy here, as I think the guy is just nuts. Just the similarity caught my attention, is all.
You would go after a psycho with a hunting knife, who has already proven he is willing to kill, with nothing but your bare hands?
The sad thing is that one person with a concealed/carry permit and a handgun could have saved that kid's life.
And do the person who mentioned the death penalty....ain't gonna happen, Canada doesn't have it.
I am sorry but to add the part of if someone had a carry permit and a handgun could have saved his life is openning a whole new can of worms,how many of these permit holders would save live's every year and how many would they kill,also to add to the fact the attack happened out of the blue so the guy was probally already dead before the passengers knew what was happenning,In a way I hope he was so he wouldnt have suffered through this shocking attack.
If someone had came up to me in 1980 when I was on my Atari 2600 and said we will be playing games with thousands of people at the same time.I guess my response would have been,"but I only have 2 joysticks"
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/235780/page/8
Honestly, with the one track mind of this guy stabbing the other guy, you do have a chance to KO him. In my opinion I would have tried to save this guy, but it would just have to be very quick. Me and my dad would not mind at all taking this guy out and giving him a stab or two. Honestly, I don't know much about Greyhound busses. I kinda thought there was always like a shotgun on board or some type of ranged weapon so bus drives can defend themsleves.
-In memory of Laura "Taera" Genender. Passed away on Aug/13/08-
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Pretty much what I was thinking. He was totally fixated on the victim. He was also crouched/leaning over the victim while doing the stabbing. This means he was in an awkward position in a cramped space. One or two guys who weren't panicked could have got him from behind. However, whether there were one or two who weren't panicking is the sticky part.
They don't have one, and i doubt it would matter one whit to this pysco.
What is wrong with people these days its like they don't even have a soul anymore.
I would be interested in learning more about the perp tho, was he on meds was he off his meds?
Did he belong to a certain faith. was he athiest? wtf was his trip to do something like this.
Man I kid you not you Americans scare me,we have had 8 posts in this thread and so far basically you want the passengers to be carrying side arms and the bus driver to be using a ranged weapon,it almost sounds like a script for mad max 4.
This was a terrible act but you guys arming everyone envolved in my eyes doesnt seem to help anything,it could infact been alot worse if a bus driver armed with a shotgun paniced and started to shoot wildly trying to hit the guy,as far as I know they dont go through sniper school to get there driver's license.
Honest guys real scary how you think.
If someone had came up to me in 1980 when I was on my Atari 2600 and said we will be playing games with thousands of people at the same time.I guess my response would have been,"but I only have 2 joysticks"
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/235780/page/8
That's completely insane , Think about being that guy sitting next to the victim . Holy crap that would suck .
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
An armed society is a polite society,Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life
An armed society is a polite society,Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life
Biggest bullshit statement ever,try and read your history in where armed nations got themselves with this sort of attitude.
I see you are from the US so if your statement is right why care who has wmd's they can just be more polite and also instead of helping in Iraq just give everyone some sort of weapon as then they will all be polite.
<modedit>
If someone had came up to me in 1980 when I was on my Atari 2600 and said we will be playing games with thousands of people at the same time.I guess my response would have been,"but I only have 2 joysticks"
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/235780/page/8
An armed society is a polite society,Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life
Biggest bullshit statement ever,try and read your history in where armed nations got themselves with this sort of attitude.
I see you are from the US so if your statement is right why care who has wmd's they can just be more polite and also instead of helping in Iraq just give everyone some sort of weapon as then they will all be polite.
<modedit>
Come on now , You're from the UK , Look how you euro's act at soccer games , Yeah no violence over there at all.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
well no I now live in Holland but anyway,I dont see your point,when someone dies at a football game we dont cry that every supporter should carry a gun to help stop it from happenning,we talk more about secruity at the games and we ban known trouble makers from traveling.
If someone had came up to me in 1980 when I was on my Atari 2600 and said we will be playing games with thousands of people at the same time.I guess my response would have been,"but I only have 2 joysticks"
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/235780/page/8
An armed society is a polite society,Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life
Biggest bullshit statement ever,try and read your history in where armed nations got themselves with this sort of attitude.
I see you are from the US so if your statement is right why care who has wmd's they can just be more polite and also instead of helping in Iraq just give everyone some sort of weapon as then they will all be polite.
<modedit>
Perhaps we can just disarm ourselves and march ourselves off to the death camps and gulags and save ourselves from the evils of private gun ownership?
oh wait you don't like being lumped up with your nationality in an attempt to say your a violent populace?
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
An armed society is a polite society,Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life
Biggest bullshit statement ever,try and read your history in where armed nations got themselves with this sort of attitude.
I see you are from the US so if your statement is right why care who has wmd's they can just be more polite and also instead of helping in Iraq just give everyone some sort of weapon as then they will all be polite.
<modedit>
Perhaps we can just disarm ourselves and march ourselves off to the death camps and gulags and save ourselves from the evils of private gun ownership?
are you fucking kidding me?
You talk about arming a nation and now being marched off to a death camp!!
I have no problem with ppl having a gun license none at all as long as it is used properly through gun clubs etc but when you talk of arming a nation to make it better is nonsense.
Also now you go on about death camps,have you any fucking idea what the people at the death camps went through?
You are comming across as a very uneducated man,I suggest you do some research.
If someone had came up to me in 1980 when I was on my Atari 2600 and said we will be playing games with thousands of people at the same time.I guess my response would have been,"but I only have 2 joysticks"
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/235780/page/8
oh wait you don't like being lumped up with your nationality in an attempt to say your a violent populace?
Not at all but tbh with you,you said I am from the UK which is maybe true but us Scots like to say we are from Scotland,which I am very proud of.
If someone had came up to me in 1980 when I was on my Atari 2600 and said we will be playing games with thousands of people at the same time.I guess my response would have been,"but I only have 2 joysticks"
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/235780/page/8
Care to explain what Atheism has to do with this?
No required quests! And if I decide I want to be an assassin-cartographer-dancer-pastry chef who lives only to stalk and kill interior decorators, then that's who I want to be, even if it takes me four years to max all the skills and everyone else thinks I'm freaking nuts. -Madimorga-
Sounds an aweful lot like the scene from Silence of the Lambs where Lector is kililng the cop while listening to his classical music.
Psychopathic behavior at its most disturbing.
Your argument is like a two legged dog with an eating disorder...weak and unbalanced.
while I do think possessing a firearm may not have been much good in thise case (just in the shock factor), a gun probably would have stopped it faster guaranteed.
A person confronting a madman with a knife a little bit more manageable witha gun. I love my weapon permit and I never get on a bus without one.
People who have to create conspiracy and hate threads to further a cause lacks in intellectual comprehension of diversity.
It happened in Canada so the gun permits etc would have made no difference. If you are a Canadian civilian or a visitor to Canada you are not allowed to carry a firearm.
Care to explain what Atheism has to do with this?
If you dont beleive in God or ultimate judgement why would you be afraid to do something like this? I have known men like that,i called them herion dealers they worshiped money,power and the fear they could instill in others, Fortunatly they were crushed by law enforcement but not before destroying many lives.
Apparently there's no problem carrying a knife in Canada though, as this article would attest.