Random Greyhound Homicide

[NiX]

I was going to post this in Serious Business, but it's not really funny or stupid. I'll just paste the news article cause I can't begin to explain this one...

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."

[HaemishM]

Fuck. 

[MrHat]

I read that earlier today.

And really:

Fuck. 

[murdoc]

Fuck. 

Was going to post this as well, but wasn't sure where the fuck it would go.

[K9]

Fuck. 

[HAMMER FRENZY]

Fuck. 

[Nerf]

None of us can say we've never had the urge to stab the fuck out of some random asshole.

I'll be he was listening to shitty music really loud, so it was easily audible to his neighbor, and probably chewing gum in the most annoying way possible.

So really, Fuck. 

[schild]

You don't hear of cases where people TRULY snap. I'd be interest to read a psyche paper on this dude.

[Soln]

Rural Canada == teh Scary.   Big time.  Yup.

[murdoc]

None of us can say we've never had the urge to stab the fuck out of some random asshole.

Maybe, but after the 40-50 stabs to the chest, the decapitating and gutting might have been a little much.

Not sure if it's in that article or a different one I read, but one passenger's quote was 'When we saw his that he had his head, we knew that he was dead'. 

[Riggswolfe]

All I know is that would cause me nightmares for days if I had been on that bus. You know every single person that lived was thinking "my god, that could have been me!"

[Engels]

Rural Canada == teh Scary.   Big time.  Yup.

Somehow, when I think of rural Canada, I don't exactly break out in a cold sweat.

[murdoc]

Rural Canada isn't actually very scary.

[WayAbvPar]

Rural Canada == teh Scary.   Big time.  Yup.

Somehow, when I think of rural Canada, I don't exactly break out in a cold sweat.

That is because it is too fucking cold to sweat in rural Canada.

[Soln]

Rural Canada == teh Scary.   Big time.  Yup.

Somehow, when I think of rural Canada, I don't exactly break out in a cold sweat.

really?  depends on where you are from I guess.

[stu]

Fehhhck. 

[Nerf]

If that guy hasn't already made a statement, he needs to go with the "I'm from the future, and he was going to destroy the world" defense, he's already halfway to insanity with the decapitation and display of the severed head.

[SurfD]

An article about it from the Winnipeg Free Press

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=7886faf4-e8e9-4217-ac1d-66563d16ec9f

I'm also going to have to go with "fuck" as my primary response to this...

[NiX]

The part that made me the most was when they describe him dropping the severed head at the door and GOING BACK TO CARVE UP MORE OF THE BODY.

[squirrel]

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

Somebody saw the guy switch seats to sit next to the kid he killed.

Fuck.

[Kitsune]

On the one hand, it was a horrifying murder.  But on the other, it was a very, very impressive horrifying murder.  When you start tossing severed heads at onlookers, you get points for style.  Bets on whether this somehow gets pinned on Dark Knight?

[NiX]

Cue Jack Thompson and Manhunt...

[lamaros]

On the one hand, it was a horrifying murder.  But on the other, it was a very, very impressive horrifying murder.  When you start tossing severed heads at onlookers, you get points for style.

I knew Nerf was broken, but... seriously?

[Kitsune]

No, not seriously.  I'm being macabre.

[Oban]

Well, I can sympathize.  There are not that many things to do in the prairie provinces during a long road trip. 

As an aside, I bet Mr. Stabby liked musicals.

[rk47]

I'd be interested to hear what his reason was. But really the part that scared me most is probably how random it sounded. The stabbings and carvings ....right after lunch too....damn.  the part where he dropped the head...that's so ultima online.

[Nerf]

I wonder if he stole his house key too?   

[Paelos]

The reason will be stupid. The reason for randomly carving up somebody is always stupid. He's batshit insane, and he was looking for somebody to turn into meat. That's it.

[apocrypha]

All I know is that would cause me nightmares for days if I had been on that bus. You know every single person that lived was thinking "my god, that could have been me!"

Days? Jesus H Christ on a bike I'd have nightmares for years after something like that!

I'm so with the

Fuck.

crew here O_o

[Oban]

So, the victim was a Carny.

 

[Bunk]

Aparently this story sparked a long thread on Fark, full of yahoos claiming all the usual stuff of how they would have saved the day, how guns would have made things better, etc.

After one guy chimed in that he would have dropped the guy with a punch, someone googled him up and presented this:



Normally I wouldn't try bring humor to such a horrible story, but this one is so fucked up, I can't think of any other way to react.

[NiX]

Guns would have made it better? Guh, I hate that mentality with a passion. They don't consider that the maniac could have gotten a gun, shot up the bus and THEN started with the knife. 1 victim to 10 victims.

[Cyrrex]

Guns would have made it better? Guh, I hate that mentality with a passion. They don't consider that the maniac could have gotten a gun, shot up the bus and THEN started with the knife. 1 victim to 10 victims.

The problem with guns is that too many stupid people have access to them.  Which story is more common:  "Vigilante Hero Thwarts Knife-Wielding Maniac" or "Innocent Toddler Blows Out Own Brains With Daddy's Gun".  Pretty sure it's the latter.  Yeah, if only we had more guns 

[HaemishM]

This thread started in a very bad place. Do we really want to fag it up even further bringing guns into the discussion?

[Paelos]

This thread started in a very bad place. Do we really want to fag it up even further bringing guns into the discussion?

Only if the winner get to cut the head off the loser.