Bus passenger beheaded seat mate, witness says
Story Highlights
NEW: AP reports witness says attacker appeared normal, seemed to be about 19

Man repeatedly stabbed, then decapitated sleeping seat mate, witness says

Trucker helped passengers trap knife-wielding man on bus, witnesses say

Other passengers, horrified, got off the Greyhound Canada bus, man says

(CNN) -- As horrified travelers watched, a Greyhound Canada bus passenger repeatedly stabbed and then decapitated the young man sitting beside him, who was sleeping with his head leaning against the window, a witness said Thursday.

"There was a bloodcurdling scream. I was just reading my book, and all of a sudden I heard it," said Garnet Caton, who was sitting in front of the two men.

"It was like something between a dog howling and a baby crying, I guess you could say. I don't think it will leave me for a while."

Caton said he shouted at the other passengers, many of whom also were sleeping, to leave. Watch Caton describe what he saw »

"Everybody got off the bus. Me and a trucker that stopped and the Greyhound driver ran up to the door to maybe see if the guy was still alive or we could help or something like that," Caton said.

"And when we all got up, we saw that the guy was cutting off the guy's head. ... When he saw us, he came back to the front of the bus, told the driver to shut the door. He pressed the button and the door shut, but it didn't shut in time, and the guy was able to get his knife out and take a swipe at us," Caton said.

Caton told The Associated Press the attacker didn't sit near the victim when he first got on the bus, about an hour before the attack.

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

Half an hour later, the attack began, Caton told the AP. "There was no rage or anything. He was like a robot, stabbing the guy."

The incident happened late Wednesday west of Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, but a standoff between the attacker and police lasted into early Thursday.

The bus was traveling along the Trans-Canada Highway from Edmonton, Alberta, to Winnipeg, Manitoba, and was about 45 minutes from its destination when the attack occurred, said Greyhound spokeswoman Abby Wambaugh in Dallas, Texas.

Caton told the AP the victim appeared to be about 19 years old and had gotten on the bus in Edmonton.

Witnesses told Canadian TV that the attacker was wielding a butcher-type knife. They said the trucker who stopped provided wrenches and crowbars to several of the men, who were able to keep the suspect on the bus until police came. After the standoff, police took the man into custody.

Wambaugh declined to comment further, except to "confirm that there was an incident on one of our buses."

"I don't want to compromise the investigation," she told CNN.

The incident occurred on the first of two Greyhound Canada buses that were traveling together, she said. The bus was carrying 37 passengers. As many passengers as possible among those not directly involved in the incident were transferred to the second bus, she said.

Others were taken to a hotel in Brandon, where they were met by Greyhound managers and police, Wambaugh said.

Once they are released, Greyhound will take them by bus to Winnipeg, and "we will do whatever is required to help them -- and that includes counseling," she added.

Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

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I feel terrible for the passengers. I can't even imagine what kind of horror it would be to travel on a Greyhound bus for 20 hours.

This is why I take the train or fly......

way gorier version in Canadian Press:

Man decapitates passenger aboard Greyhound bus in Manitoba
Bus en route to Winnipeg from Edmonton; story contains graphic details
Last Updated: Thursday, July 31, 2008 | 1:39 PM CT Comments694Recommend1445CBC News

A passenger repeatedly stabbed and then decapitated a young man aboard a Greyhound bus travelling through Manitoba overnight in what appears to be a random attack, witnesses told CBC News.

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 report, only saying that a homicide took place about 18 kilometres west of Portage la Prairie, Man., late Wednesday on a bus driving along the Trans-Canada Highway.

The RCMP said a suspect, whose identity has not been released, was arrested early Thursday morning. More information would be released Thursday afternoon at a press conference in Winnipeg, RCMP said.

About 37 passengers and a driver were aboard the bus en route to Winnipeg from Edmonton, according to a Greyhound spokesperson.

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 to 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.

"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.

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.

"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."

Clicky

Sources close to me have identified the two involved:



Canadians will fucking kill you.

See, if knives were against the law, and only the police and government could have them, things like this wouldn't happen!

Japan has had a recent spike in knife attacks as well. When are people going to learn? Knives shouldn't be available to the general public. At least not without a permit and a background check. And even then they should have to be kept in a knife safe or covered with a blade lock.

And while I'm on the subject, I understand they are making ceramic knives now. What kind of insanity is this? Knives that won't set off a metal detector! We're just asking for it now!

:bannanadrippingsarcasm:

never bring a knive to a gunfight

Go Greyhound and leave the driving to us!!!!!!

You gotta be careful of those crazy fuckers from Edmonton. Oh, wait a minute... nevermind.

Bad Habit wrote:

Quote:

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...Japan has had a recent spike in knife attacks as well. ....
And while I'm on the subject, I understand they are making ceramic knives now.

---

In London, this year alone, between 10 and 20 teenagers have been stabbed (to death?). DanG, could you add specifics?

Ceramic knives are not really new, but, until recently, not easy to manufacture. Ceramic elements are used in other weaponry as well, I think.

I think those ceramic knifes have a trace of metal in them included during their firing, so they'll trip off metal detectors at airports and such. wonder if anyone makes ceramic pistols...

The :bannanadrippingsarcasm: should have tipped you guys off.

I "know" ceramic knives (and guns) have more then enough metal to set off detectors.

I was applying the same asinine arguments to this event that are constantly applied to similar events where the weapon used is a firearm.

My point being that anything can be used as a weapon and murder is already a felony crime, so why is the tool used to carry it out focused on and demonized more so then the person wielding it?

My attempt at a social statement and you guys are like the fence at the end of a runway. :bananaoveryourhead:

Note to self: Don't use public transportation while in Canada.

God gave you two legs for a reason.

Though I remember a simpler, more innocent time, when this kind of thing only
happened in the US.

Jesus Christ you guys are heartless

what a bunch of turds.

kudos for being on par with the 16 yr old clown shoes wearing douchebag kids across north america who think its amusing and rebellious to mock horrific events.

grow up and be men for a week, try it out, its fun . Women dig it, also its kind of a rush coming up with humour that doesnt involve people dying.

when your balls drop, kick me an email and we can wax comedic together

^^ Humor is the most common form of dealing with tragic events. (First week of Psych 101).

The 3 Stooges understood this part of the human psyche. You really need to keep up.

Wow.


absolutely enlightening insight captain .
Solid work. I must have missed the episode where
curly cut moes fucking head off

Billy if you want to commiserate over this tragedy go somewhere else. That place isn't and shouldn't be XPT. Even if it happened less than a block from your house or heaven forbid it was your own brothers head severed don't come crying on xpt asking for reverence.

^^ Amazing. The whining pup decries violence and when given helpful advice from a senior poster, he blindly attacks, effectively exposing his own hypocrisy.

Newbie Gold. Enjoy your visit, Huckleberry.

Pull your tongue out of his ass.

someone chiding me and me making a dickhead remark back are not at all in league with a fucking beheading.

i can still decry violence and be a jerkoff lol....i fail to see how this makes me a hypocrite.


sweet god, dummy up

Hypocrisy, none the less. You're just arguing degrees.

See, that's the point Huckleberry, no one chided you. Just tried to give you helpful advice and you respond with insults and profanity (the hallmarks of great intelligence, not).

So if that's the persona you want to put forth on this board, then you are among good company along with the likes of Diarrhea, Tritone, Lyin Knox, etc.

Enjoy your eCourage, Noob. With your attitude it's going to be fun watching you disintegrate.

I predict an alt.id in your future.

I drove 55mph down 77south today. It is a 65mph zone. People were tremendously upsert. It is exhirilirating getting passed by multitudes and angrily honked at by them, vans dramatically whipping around you threatening to clip your rear bumper. It is satisfying to me watching them recede into the distance ahead of me, maintain my speed and imagining their angry eyes on my Cavalier in their rearview. Its a lovely array. I domn't know why I feel like I do in the moment. I don't care to examine it either.
I made that journey to come to this friendly terminal. One of the reasons was to come herew. and one of the reason to come here was to look at reaction to this story, which has captured my heartmind in a way know other story yhas since the one a few years ago about the realeased pet Python in the Flrida Everglades that grew to a monstrous size and met its death when it tried to swallow an alligator whole (the gator ripping the serpent open from within and sealing both their fates). Like my experience ealier on the road from Canton, I thinkj it is crucial that I not examine the resonance of either story but feel grateful I can still be moved in that uncanny way that makesa me feel a dreadful kind of hope where ithought none no longer existed.

I forgot to say that I am dissapointed in the responses and turnout (unless there is another thread on this subject). The debate over the 2nd Amendment and its implications is surely an important subject, but I think it is miserable that this story has el;icited no response beyond this context. Don't ask me what broader contexts or responses this story deserves. I can't say. I powerfully feel the multitudes, but only vaguely in a way I can't articulate. I feel everything vaguely now.

I read your posts, yet all i hear in my head as i try to make sense of it, is that repetitive wonking of charlie browns teacher.

i care little about whether or not a couple self proclaimed stalwarts of the board approve of my reaction
because unlike you i try to retain a shred of humanity and invest my "feelings" you could say ,in more important matters like...say trying in some akward way to discourage others from ridiculing a beheading of an innocent kid.


i dont even know you and i dont hate you or even mildly dislike you , i know you probably automatically assume the worst from people online because people are dicks..

and i mouth off...all that "politics" and run on sentences aside.

we have a million things to mock other then 9/11, then babies dying, then beheadings, grotesque acts of violence
never thrilled me and i dont even want to argue this anymore because bickering is lame in the face of something this grisly

i get just as appalled when i see the thousands of sick fucks who line up to watch viral video versions of beheadings and then mock it .

it has nothing to do with silly ideals or notions of the world. or the fact it happened in north america.

just doesnt seem to be becoming of grown men and women.

have your vice, have your fights, have your fun
but never at the death of another

colour me kooky for expecting some level of tact from people who are drawn to a lifestyle on this board that shows we have a slightly more enlightened and diverse appetites not on par with the rest of the herd

Quote:

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Hypocrisy, none the less. You're just arguing degrees.

See, that's the point Huckleberry, no one chided you. Just tried to give you helpful advice and you respond with insults and profanity (the hallmarks of great intelligence, not).

So if that's the persona you want to put forth on this board, then you are among good company along with the likes of Diarrhea, Tritone, Lyin Knox, etc.

Enjoy your eCourage, Noob. With your attitude it's going to be fun watching you disintegrate.

I predict an alt.id in your future.

---

Billy, as a fellow Canuck I feel compelled to play Counterpoint to your Point.

We're not even three full days into this cocksucker and the media is fucking it like the three dollar whore that it is.

A life was lost and that is tragic, but you've got to be able to find the lighter side of the story. People ride buses and get decapitated all the time. It is a scientific fact.

This happenstance will be the buzzword until the next fucktard comes along and decides that it's his turn to do something unthinkable.

I can't accuse you of overreacting to a situation, because I'm reacting in part to your reaction, but lighten up, man. It's the long weekend up here for chrissake.

Go get a buzz on or get fucked or something.

Once again, proving how clueless she really is, I bring you Steph at ADT's response to the Bus tragedy.

http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/155340

^^ Very appropriate on several levels:

Knifing
Humor
3 Stooges

I approve!