Sleeping Man Beheaded on Greyhound Bus

PeppyGPhiB · #1 07-31-2008, 07:14 PM

Warning: this is a disturbing story!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25949218/

Horror on Canadian bus as seat mate beheaded

40-year-old arrested after grisly slaying aboard Manitoba-bound Greyhound

WINNIPEG, Manitoba - A traveler aboard a Greyhound bus repeatedly stabbed and then decapitated his seat mate, pausing during the savage attack in central Canada to display the head to passengers who had fled in horror, witnesses said Thursday.

A 40-year-old man was arrested shortly after the grisly slaying Wednesday night aboard a bus traveling from Edmonton, Alberta, to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Steve Colwell told reporters Thursday.

Police apprehended the suspect when he broke a bus window and tried to escape, Colwell said. A motive had not been determined. Authorities declined to identify the suspect or the victim, and provided few details about the attack.

JohnnyCash · #2 03-05-2009, 04:58 PM

This thread is nothing without pictures

RU OX Alum · #3 03-06-2009, 04:10 PM

there are pictures in the link, but this thread is still nothing

Everything is nothing.

I'm still stunned that no one tried to stop him.

CutiePie2000 · #4 03-06-2009, 05:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RU OX Alum

I'm still stunned that no one tried to stop him.

One guy did want to try (Garnet Caton), but when he tried to recruit a 2nd guy as backup, the 2nd guy bolted.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl.../National/home
"Mr. Caton, who served five years in the Canadian Forces and was closest to the attacker, paused before leaving, torn momentarily between concern for his own safety and the thought of abandoning the bleeding victim. He turned to another man nearby and asked for his help.

"I said, 'Give me a hand and let's get this guy.' And the other guy took off," he said.

And there isn't really a lot of room to manoever around/defend yourself/escape in the narrow aisle of a bus.

madmax · #5 03-06-2009, 05:32 PM

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle4439183.ece

The original story left out some details. He also disemboweled the victim. The guy is a nut and they should fry him.

DamonSaid will probably organize a Free OJ type protest.

LucyKKG · #6 03-06-2009, 05:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by madmax

He also disemboweled the victim.

Whaaaaaaaaaat???

PeppyGPhiB · #7 03-06-2009, 05:51 PM

He tore the guy apart. They found his nose, ears and tongue in the mad man's pocket, and the rest of him was all over the bus. I can't imagine what his family must feel. I, too, am surprised that a group of people didn't try to stop him...I can understand one guy being afraid to, what with the knife weilding psycho, but a few of them could have probably unarmed him.

I believe that this guy was mentally ill, but I think he should be hospitalized for life. If someone is THIS crazy, I don't think they're ever going to be reliably well ever again.

DaemonSeid · #8 03-06-2009, 04:13 PM

Have we not learned from this?

Kevin · #9 03-09-2009, 11:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KSigkid

Again, I'm not a criminal law expert, so take what I say with a grain of salt...but my understanding is that in the United States, temporary insanity can't be offered as an affirmative defense. It can only be offered as a mitigating factor to take into account when handing down a sentence.

It may be a different story in Canada.

We don't call it "temporary insanity." That's a lay term which looks a lot like a legal defense, but it doesn't exist. A plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect goes right to the mens rea aspect of the crime (a crime consists of two things, an act (actus reus) and a 'bad' mental state of either intentionally, knowingly, recklessly or negligently doing the bad thing (mens rea).

Most U.S. jurisdictions have rules which go something like this (cut/pasted from wikipedia):

Quote:

. . . [A] person may be "insane" if "...at the time of the committing of the act, the party accused was laboring under such a defect of reason, arising from a disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing, or, if he did know it, that he did not know what he was doing was wrong."

According to that same article, the defense is very rare -- used only in less than 1% of the murder cases and successful only about 26% of the time.

Also, your 'reward,' should this defense work is to be locked in psyciatric prison facility until you are rehabilitated or until you are dead. My guess is that more often than not, it is the later that comes true more often than the former.

KSigkid · #10 03-09-2009, 11:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevin

We don't call it "temporary insanity." That's a lay term which looks a lot like a legal defense, but it doesn't exist. A plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect goes right to the mens rea aspect of the crime (a crime consists of two things, an act (actus reus) and a 'bad' mental state of either intentionally, knowingly, recklessly or negligently doing the bad thing (mens rea).

Most U.S. jurisdictions have rules which go something like this (cut/pasted from wikipedia):

According to that same article, the defense is very rare -- used only in less than 1% of the murder cases and successful only about 26% of the time.

Also, your 'reward,' should this defense work is to be locked in psyciatric prison facility until you are rehabilitated or until you are dead. My guess is that more often than not, it is the later that comes true more often than the former.

Thanks...again most of my knowledge (both in law school and at work) has to do with civil defense, so you could fit my knowledge of criminal law on the head of a pin. The low use of the defense makes sense though, based on what I've heard in conversations with criminal defense attorneys.

CutiePie2000 · #11 03-09-2009, 04:04 PM

They're going to be reviewing this guy once a year every year, is what it came down to.

Kevin · #12 03-09-2009, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KSigkid

Thanks...again most of my knowledge (both in law school and at work) has to do with civil defense, so you could fit my knowledge of criminal law on the head of a pin. The low use of the defense makes sense though, based on what I've heard in conversations with criminal defense attorneys.

np.

I haven't read the article and I can't recall and don't want to reread the thread, but it's also possible that under Canadian law, they've decided that he's too crazy right now to be able to assist in his own defense.

Americans and Canadians often share some of the same rights because those rights came from English law.

KSigkid · #13 07-31-2008, 08:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jen

It's ALL over the news here. I hear so many awful things watching the news and online, but I don't think I've had such a visceral reaction to a story since the little boy was thrown off the overpass in Hawaii.

It's always amazed me you can't get on a plane with a weapon, but there's not a single thing in place for bus or train travel.

That always surprised me too; I used to take the Greyhound/Peter Pan home for holidays. They put up signs after 9/11 that all bags were subject to search, but I never saw one actually get searched.

#14 07-31-2008, 08:47 PM

Who in the world travels with tools that would decapitate someone? What kind of instrument even does that? I imagine your everyday regular knife wouldn't...

KSigkid · #15 07-31-2008, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OTW

Who in the world travels with tools that would decapitate someone? What kind of instrument even does that? I imagine your everyday regular knife wouldn't...

I can't imagine what that guy's last moments were like. The guy next to you pulls out some sort of tools and starts stabbing you...unreal. That stuff is enough to give you nightmares for weeks.