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Man decapitated on Greyhound bus headed to Winnipeg
at 14:26 on July 31, 2008, EDT.
By Steve Lambert, THE CANADIAN PRESS

PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE, Man. - Shocked passengers aboard a Greyhound bus in Manitoba said the attack was incomprehensible.

One moment, the quiet man near the back of the bus was minding his own business. The man, believed to be in his 30s, hadn't talked to anyone around him, and seemed to pay no attention to the younger fellow sitting next to him, who was listening to music on headphones. The next moment, witnesses said, the older man stood up, still quiet, and repeatedly stabbed then beheaded his seat-mate with a large hunting knife.

"We heard this blood-curdling scream and turned around, and the guy was standing up, stabbing this guy repeatedly, like 40 or 50 times," Garnet Caton said Thursday from a hotel in Brandon, Man., where he and other passengers had been taken to rest.

"There was no rage or anything. He was like a robot, stabbing the guy."

Caton said the bus stopped and everyone scrambled to get out while the attacker started methodically carving up the victim's body, not paying attention to anyone else.

Caton and the driver shut the bus door from the outside while they waited for police to arrive.

"We put our bodies up against the door, waiting for him to come out ... and he went back and brought the head to the front and pretty much displayed it ... and dropped it on the ground in front of us," Caton said.

"All very calmly. He was wearing sunglasses. It was no big deal to him."

Fellow passenger Cody Olmstead from Kentville, N.S., also recalled the chilling scene.

"The guy came to the front of the door with buddy's head in his hands, decapitated. He dropped the head and went back and started cutting the body back up," Olmstead told Brandon radio station CKLQ.

Both men said the attacker and the victim appeared not to know each other.

They said the attacker boarded the bus in Brandon Wednesday night. The victim, who Caton said appeared to be about 19, had been on the bus since Edmonton.

Police didn't confirm details, saying only that a homicide occurred on the bus, which stopped about 15 kilometres west of Portage la Prairie.

One man was taken into custody after Mounties surrounded the vehicle.

Federal Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said the full weight of the law must be brought to bear on the perpetrator.

"We want to make sure the process is followed as aggressively as possible, the full legal process ...." Day said from Levis, Que., where Conservative MPs are gathered for a summer planning session.

"This particular incident, as horrific as it is, is obviously extremely rare. Certainly the horrific nature of it is probably one-of-a-kind in Canadian history."

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.

The bus was carrying 37 passengers and the driver to Winnipeg from Edmonton.

A portion of the east-bound Trans-Canada Highway was closed overnight as officers remained on the scene.

Passengers were unable to understand what might have prompted the attack. The suspect had been on the bus for only about an hour and didn't even sit near his victim at first.

"He sat in the front at first, everything was normal," Caton said.

"We went to the next stop and he got off and had a smoke with another young lady there. When he got on the bus again, he came to the back near where I was sitting.

"He put his bags in the overhead compartment. He didn't say a word to anybody. He seemed totally normal. About a half an hour later, we heard this blood-curdling scream."

©The Canadian Press, 2008

Clicky

I will bet the suspect just got out of prison on STAT release (likely Stoney Mountain Pen.) and probably made comments prior to leaving that he would be back and would commit a violent offence.

I will say I'm more disturbed that I'm not shocked about the crime, rather than the crime itself.

I wonder how loud the headphone music was. Because honestly, when people sit near me with their f**** IPODs blasting their music so that I can hear it 4 rows back, it makes me damn near homicidal.

good lord! That's just shocking.

Can you imagine witnessing that? The nightmares and the intrusive recurring images flashing in your mind, forcing you to remember it over and over. Man, that's really got to suck.

I was shocked when I read the articles about this today. It just seems so unreal. Everyone minding their own business on a bus, when suddenly someone is killed so violently. I can't imagine what the other passengers are feeling.

I heard on the radio today that the guy was actually cutting off pieces of the victims skin and eating it. That just makes my stomach turn! I can't imagine witnessing that.

Quote:Beheading victim remembered as fun-loving
Gabrielle Giroday and Ian Hitchen , Winnipeg Free Press and Brandon Sun
Published: Friday, August 01, 2008
BRANDON, Man. - A 22-year-old Winnipeg man who was the victim of a gruesome murder aboard a Greyhound bus was a fun guy who loved tattoos and working out, according to tributes on two social networking websites.

A number of groups on the social networking website Facebook are paying tribute to Tim McLean as the victim of a horrific stabbing and decapitation.

"He was a great person, he was kind, thoughtful, and he did not deserve this," Jossie Kehleer, the creator of one of the Facebook groups, wrote on the page. "I feel for his parents and sisters and his (little brother).
"All I can remember is good times with Tim, there was never one day it wasn't fun, or he made you smile or cry because you were laughing so hard. He made good memories . . . but he's in all of our hearts, and he's not going anywhere."

On his Myspace profile, McLean, who called himself "Jokawild," described himself as someone who was into having a good time and "getting the most out of life."

He had three tattoos, and said he owned an iguana and loved loud music, motorcycles and working on his physique which he called "rock hard."

RCMP have a suspect in custody - a 40-year-old man who is not believed to be from Manitoba - but offered they have given few details about the baffling homicide.

The suspect is expected to be formally charged Friday.

Screaming passengers fled in terror from a Greyhound bus outside of Portage la Prairie, Man., Wednesday night as a passenger suddenly stabbed the man sleeping next to him, decapitated him and waved the severed head at horrified witnesses standing outside.

The apparently unprovoked assault 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 and a 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."

Caton said the attacker 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 the victim earlier in the trip.

He said the victim boarded the bus in Edmonton was going to Winnipeg.

Caton and other passengers said the attacker and his victim, who was listening to music on headphones, were sitting together at the rear of the bus, and the attack appeared to be unprovoked; no words were exchanged.

He told a TV station the attacker had actually changed seats to sit next to his victim just before the killing.

Caton described the man who attacked the passenger as bald and wearing sunglasses. He seemed oblivious to others when the stabbing occurred, said Caton, 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.

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 were 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.

Crisis counsellors were also at the hotel to provide support to the passengers.

CF Scorpio Wrote:I wonder how loud the headphone music was. Because honestly, when people sit near me with their f**** IPODs blasting their music so that I can hear it 4 rows back, it makes me damn near homicidal.

Um, that's a bit insensitive, don't you think? The guy was just sitting there and gets stabbed and decapitated.

I hope you're not making fun of the situation.

NKBurlington Wrote:

CF Scorpio Wrote:I wonder how loud the headphone music was. Because honestly, when people sit near me with their f**** IPODs blasting their music so that I can hear it 4 rows back, it makes me damn near homicidal.

Um, that's a bit insensitive, don't you think? The guy was just sitting there and gets stabbed and decapitated.

I hope you're not making fun of the situation.

Well, the article said that the guy was listening to music on his headphones and that "they don't know why the other guy just suddenly stabbed him". It seems like a logical conclusion to me.

If the killer was imbalanced to begin with, a loud, repetitive noise may have caused him to snap.

ETA: The post above about the victim's MySpace page states that he loved "loud music". So I think my theory is correct.

This is the most horrifying thing I've ever read. I wouldn't be surprised if every one of those passengers develops PTSD from witnessing this gruesome, bizarre attack.

Holy effin hell.

I'm in Winnipeg right now, and this was the first I heard of it. My friend Grant, with whom I'm staying, frequently takes greyhounds when he travels and he's in his 30s. Lordy. Could have been him. Could have been any of us.

Holy crap! There are no words to describe this.

CF Scorpio Wrote:ETA: The post above about the victim's MySpace page states that he loved "loud music". So I think my theory is correct.

Regardless, the man did not deserve to suffer such a gruesome death.

Now, this I just don't get:

Quote:Drivers and passengers commended

On Thursday afternoon the RCMP commended the driver and passengers of the bus where the murder took place.

"I also want to acknowledge the driver and the other passengers on the bus," Sgt. Steve Calwell said at a news conference.

"What you saw would and what you experienced would shake the most seasoned police officer, yet I'm told that each of you reacted swiftly, calmly, and with bravery. We commend you for your level headedness and strength in the face of truly extreme circumstance. "

What in God's name are they being commended for? Running away? Not helping that poor man? Saving themselves above all else.

Meh, I'm not shocked by it nor am I surprised by my reaction, but I find that the Western world lives in some little bubble where bad things don't happen to good people.

He was definitely dead before being skinned? He's luckier than some people I have heard about...

NKB: I don't blame them for reacting the way that they did, but yeah... they reacted normally and properly but not above and beyond anything normal. Humans, when faced with something gruesome like that, will nornally not be able to react in any way other than staying motionless or running. They shouldn't be expected to do anything more and I would never expect them to have tried to save that man's life. My thought is that they are commending them because each one of them is living with severe guilt for not having tried harder to do something, and they shouldn't have to feel that way.

NKBurlington Wrote:...What in God's name are they being commended for? Running away? Not helping that poor man? Saving themselves above all else.

You just accused CFScorpio of being insensitive then you post this?

What the passengers DID do was everything they could to prevent the man from attacking anyone else. I suspect they knew the victim was dead and at the height of the event (having the man carry the head and drop it where they could clearly see what happened) they armed themselves with what little they had available, kept everyone else back, barricaded the door, and called for help.

In 1984 at Stoney Mountain prison a Correctional Officer was brutally murdered on the range by a convict armed with a pair of scissors. His partner ran up the range to help him. They say the partner who tried to help was dead before he hit the floor.

What the passengers did was worthy of the police compliments. And, like Ziggy said, if it alleviates the guilt for 'not doing enough', given they likely will see the event every time they close their eyes for the rest of their lives, then that's OK.

Sometimes not rushing in before you know the extent of what's happening is more heroic then going in and becoming a victim yourself.

Of course, I wasn't there (thank God) and honestly I don't know how I would have reacted. I don't blame those poor people for his death; not at all. I suppose I shouldn't judge them.

Maybe as we find out more we will learn that there were indeed some people who tried to help.

I guess you can't go up against a mad mad though.

I feel just awful for the people who witnessed this brutal act of violence. What makes a person do such a thing? What was he thinking? By all accounts, it was completely unprovoked.

I wonder if we'll ever know.

I think we underestimate how quickly these kinds of things can happen, because the only violence we typically see -- in movies/television -- is usually slowed down to accentuate the shock, horror, human drama, whatever.

Do this -- pound very hard on your desk or a pillow, as fast as you can. I can do about five reps PER SECOND! That's theoretically how many times I could stab someone in one second. How fast does it take a person to react? -- how long until someone noticed what was going on? -- if it was two seconds, the man might have been stabbed ten times already. He might have been dead before the first person even noticed what was going on! Before his brain even had time to register what was going on, it was probably already too late for him.

I think they did very well, too. They got themselves off before anyone else became a victim (if you can stab a person five times in one second, how many different people can you stab within, say, ten seconds?), and they prevented the murderer from escaping by barricading the door. That's great! And while that left the madman with free access to the corpse, to do really horrible things to it, the poor man was already gone, so the damage was done.

What in god's name is happening here? What the fuck is wrong with these people?

Extremist church to be blocked at border: report
Updated Thu. Aug. 7 2008 11:47 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

Canadian border guards have been told to bar a fanatic church group that was planning to protest the funeral of a man beheaded on a Greyhound bus, reports say.

NDP MP Pat Martin told the Winnipeg Free Press that Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day sent the alert to border guards Thursday.

The church group, described in a British documentary as "the most hated family in America," told CTV.ca earlier Thursday that it planned to protest at the funeral of 22-year-old Tim Mclean on Saturday.

Martin said his office was flooded with phone calls Thursday with Winnipeg constituents angered by the group's plan.

"These people are almost as crazy as the murderer," he told the newspaper, referring to the church's intentions.

The daughter of the founder of the Westboro Baptist Church, based in Topeka, Ka., told CTV.ca she and several other church members will go to Winnipeg on Saturday to demonstrate against what she described as McLean's "filthy way of life." Shirley Phelps-Roper said his life was emblematic of Canada's moral decay.

"God handed us a gift," Phelps-Roper said in a phone interview on Thursday.

She said McLean deserved his death by beheading on a Greyhound Bus last week.

"(His death was) supremely unemotional. You got God shaking in rage. There is no emotional component ... He was a rebel against God. He was taught to be a rebel by his parents. He came from a rebel country ... They brought this wrath upon his head. And it sucks to be him and it sucks to be them," Phelps-Roper said.

She said his brutal murder was a sign from God.

"You gotta connect the dots, people ... from your idols to your filthy way of life," she said.

"Here's what I know. He is dead and God does not do that to people that serve in his truth."

Phelps-Roper described McLean -- who she had never met -- in an insulting, insensitive and graphic manner. Her crudest descriptions of the 22-year-old are not printed.

"I haven't met him personally, but he has nothing going on," she said dismissively.

"(His life) was all about him. Blah, blah, blah ... He was a rebel ... I don't need to know anything else ... I don't need to know the minutia. Everything you need to know is right there."

The Westboro Baptist church has gained notoriety in recent years for setting up protest pickets at the funerals of U.S. soldiers who died in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Church members claim the deaths are part of God's wrath against Americans for turning their back on his teachings. They have repeatedly called the U.S. a "fag" nation, a phrase Phelps-Roper used repeatedly to describe Canada.

Phelps-Roper said she does not mind that her family is reviled by the majority of Americans. She claimed she rejoices when people say they despise and hate her family.

"I say, 'cha ching.' That goes in our bank. God gives us tokens of his love," she said.

Phelps-Roper said members of the Westboro Baptist Church, which numbers about "70 souls," is comprised mainly of a single extended family.

The group was supposed to protest a play held in a downtown Toronto bar that mocked their church's reviled views. "The Pastor Phelps Project" played at The Cameron House Thursday without incident, according to reports.

McLean was killed on July 30 after being stabbed repeatedly on a Greyhound bus by a complete stranger. He was then beheaded.

Vince Li, 40, has been charged with second-degree murder. A psychiatric evaluation has been ordered for Li.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/st...TopStories

Oh, god, that's the church founded by that "god hates fags" idiot, Fred Phelps. I'm glad they will be stopped at the border! Please, lock them up! Maybe one of them will be carrying an unregistered weapon or something.

I saw that BBC documentary about Phelpses, and their insanity is completely beyond the scope of anything imaginable. They say Jews are going to hell because they "worship the rectum." They are utterly obsessed with gay stuff. There was a brief interview with Fred Phelps himself, who is very reclusive and rarely comes out of his hidey hole, and he's so mentally ill and consumed with rage nothing he says makes sense. Ugh. These fucking horrible people.