Man Decapitated By Seat Mate On Bus
A man aboard a Greyhound bus repeatedly stabbed and then decapitated a fellow passenger, witnesses said Thursday.
The man, who was not identified, was arrested for the murder, which occurred Wednesday night aboard a bus traveling from Edmonton, Alberta, to Winnipeg, Manitoba, The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement.
Authorities also declined to name the victim and provided no other details about the attack.
Passenger Garnet Caton said the victim was stabbed 40 or 50 times by the man sitting next to him. The passenger then allegedly severed the man's head with a large knife and held it up by the door for others to see.
"We heard this bloodcurdling scream and turned around, and the guy was standing up, stabbing this guy repeatedly, like 40 or 50 times," Caton said from a hotel in Brandon, Manitoba, where he and other passengers had been taken to rest.
Caton said the bus stopped and the passengers scrambled to disembark while the suspect allegedly began methodically carving up the man's body.
"When he was attacking him, he was calm ... like he was at the beach," Caton said. "There was no rage or, or anything. He was just like a robot stabbing the guy."
Caton said he, the bus driver and a trucker at the scene re-boarded to see what was happening.
Caton said he saw the suspect had the victim on the floor of the bus and "was cutting his head off and pretty much gutting him."
He said they quickly disembarked and braced themselves against the door to prevent the attacker from leaving 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.
Fellow passenger Cody Olmstead told Brandon radio station CKLQ that the man "dropped the head and went back and started cutting the body back up."
Greyhound spokeswoman Abby Wambaugh said 37 passengers and one driver were on the bus.
The victim, who Caton said appeared to be about 19, had been on the bus since Edmonton. He said the attacker boarded the bus around Brandon, Manitoba, about 80 miles west of Portage La Prairie.
The suspect had been on the bus for 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 bloodcurdling scream."
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day called it a "horrific" incident, but did not discuss details of the attack, saying he did not want to jeopardize the investigation.
"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.
Day called it bizarre and extremely rare.
"The horrific nature of it is probably one-of-a-kind in Canadian history," Day said.
© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The man, who was not identified, was arrested for the murder, which occurred Wednesday night aboard a bus traveling from Edmonton, Alberta, to Winnipeg, Manitoba, The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement.
Authorities also declined to name the victim and provided no other details about the attack.
Passenger Garnet Caton said the victim was stabbed 40 or 50 times by the man sitting next to him. The passenger then allegedly severed the man's head with a large knife and held it up by the door for others to see.
"We heard this bloodcurdling scream and turned around, and the guy was standing up, stabbing this guy repeatedly, like 40 or 50 times," Caton said from a hotel in Brandon, Manitoba, where he and other passengers had been taken to rest.
Caton said the bus stopped and the passengers scrambled to disembark while the suspect allegedly began methodically carving up the man's body.
"When he was attacking him, he was calm ... like he was at the beach," Caton said. "There was no rage or, or anything. He was just like a robot stabbing the guy."
Caton said he, the bus driver and a trucker at the scene re-boarded to see what was happening.
Caton said he saw the suspect had the victim on the floor of the bus and "was cutting his head off and pretty much gutting him."
He said they quickly disembarked and braced themselves against the door to prevent the attacker from leaving 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.
Fellow passenger Cody Olmstead told Brandon radio station CKLQ that the man "dropped the head and went back and started cutting the body back up."
Greyhound spokeswoman Abby Wambaugh said 37 passengers and one driver were on the bus.
The victim, who Caton said appeared to be about 19, had been on the bus since Edmonton. He said the attacker boarded the bus around Brandon, Manitoba, about 80 miles west of Portage La Prairie.
The suspect had been on the bus for 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 bloodcurdling scream."
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day called it a "horrific" incident, but did not discuss details of the attack, saying he did not want to jeopardize the investigation.
"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.
Day called it bizarre and extremely rare.
"The horrific nature of it is probably one-of-a-kind in Canadian history," Day said.
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WE are being attacked from within.
I blame Greyhound, should of had a off-site-remote security systems for rider protection. And A Greyhound bus should have more than one employee-driver on board, obviously.
I feel terrible for this person killed. It could of been my 19 year old.
As for the other passengers, noone can second guess your judgement, as we were not there. No one can determine how they would respond in a moment of horror such as this, and only the idiotic would dare say so.
To all else...
It looks as if the bus system of transportation will have to begin security screening and make passengers check bags that will be stored below. A metal detector prior to boarding, and huge expense to the travel industry. Same goes for trains. But terrorism, whether political or psychopathic cannot be tolerated, as long as we all claim our desire for a peaceful, civilized, lawful, society.
And Canada...As for the death penalty- don''t bother. It doesn''t work in the US as a deterent to wart off violent crime...obviously. Its process of appeal drags out a sentance too long. Now if you can get it done the day after the conviction, whereby the sentance has some teeth- well then fine, line them up and plug them in.
For this monster, feed him to the hogs. Maybe some shark fisherman can use him as chum...
+ report abuse
*******
who said about ''TEACHING'' that killing is wrong..you cannot stop humanity from doing it..ITS SHOWING THAT killing has a very harsh REPRECUSSION..
typical bleeding heart liberal...
After that we''''re all on our own and at the mercy of a savage and unpredicatble world.
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Yes, that''s how it seems. Because that''s how we CHOOSE to make it.
As I wrote below, I used to work for a public school. I watched the school system MAKE criminals out of children. Why?
Because the parents force the school to do it. School personnel live and die by the number of parent complaints they get. Not by the merits of the complaints, not by the nature or if it was true or not. Just RECEIVING the complaint counts against you.
Because parents are paying the bill. Administrators and faculty are geing paid by the public. So the public leads you around by the nose.
And the fact is, the public today WANTS the schools to be criminal factories. And they get their wish.
Is there a solution? YES. But nobody is willing to use it because it would mean giving the public less control of the education system. And people think that would be worse.