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Portage la Prairie, Canada - Passengers Horrific Beheading On A Greyhound Bus, Rattles Investigators

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Published on:   Jul 31, 2008 at 03:43 PM
News Source: AP
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Portage la Prairie, Canada - It came out of nowhere, passengers on the Canadian Greyhound bus said. A young man was sleeping, head against the window, when the man sitting next to him began stabbing and then decapitating him as other travellers looked on in horror.

The grisly and apparently random evening attack, on a bus bound for Winnipeg, ended with police apprehending the assailant hours later.

The 37 passengers who witnessed the carnage, including several children, were left to relay their shocking tale of the man wearing sunglasses who suddenly pulled out a hunting knife.

"We heard this blood-curdling scream and turned around, and the guy was standing up, stabbing this guy sitting next to him repeatedly, like 40 or 50 times," passenger Garnet Caton told the Canadian press.

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"When he was attacking him, he was calm — it was like he was at the beach," added Caton, who was sitting in front of the victim.

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


The terrified passengers fled immediately, taking shelter along the side of the road as the bus driver disabled the vehicle so the attacker could not escape.

Caton and the driver soon returned to the vehicle, however, and found the assailant still hacking the young man's body into pieces.

The severed head of the victim, described as in his 20s, was then displayed to the stunned passengers.

"He went back to his seat and brought the head to the front and pretty much displayed it to us like that, and then dropped it on the ground in front of us," Caton said.

RCMP officers investigate a \'major incident\' that occurred on a Greyhound bus about 18 km west of Portage La Prairie, Man., Thursday morning, July 31, 2008. (John Woods / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
RCMP officers investigate a 'major incident' that occurred on a Greyhound bus about 18 km west of Portage La Prairie, Man., Thursday morning, July 31, 2008. (John Woods / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
The attack took place just after 10pm outside the small town of Portage La Prairie, Manitoba. The bus originated in Edmonton, about 840 miles away from its final destination.

The Canadian mounted police took the passengers to a nearby hotel while they began an investigation.

The attack left Canadian officials grasping for explanations.

Stockwell Day, the public safety minister, said the assailant should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

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

Passengers wait outside a Grey Hound bus Wednesday night after a man was stabbed and decapitated.
Passengers wait outside a Grey Hound bus Wednesday night after a man was stabbed and decapitated.


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Read Comments (23)  —  Post Yours »

1

 Jul 31, 2008 at 03:57 PM nebuch Says:

Yea and like the Liberal Canadians will do anything to this ferd!! Maybe they should tell him to apologize and never do it again.

2

 Jul 31, 2008 at 03:57 PM Anonymous Says:

Couldn't anyone stop him?

3

 Jul 31, 2008 at 04:00 PM murray Says:

How can you even comment.........I'm speechless,would like to know however if there was any type of relationship between the two seat mates, or was it totally random?

4

 Jul 31, 2008 at 04:03 PM non-affiliated Chasid Says:

obviously his time has come

5

 Jul 31, 2008 at 04:15 PM Anonymous Says:

how come its not on drudge, cnn, msnbc? are they hiding the story?

6

 Jul 31, 2008 at 04:27 PM Chuchem Ainov Beroishoi Says:

Its high time to supply Bus Drivers with weapons, just like we do to pilots and air marshals.

7

 Jul 31, 2008 at 04:36 PM deepthinker Says:

The obvious unanswered question is: was this guy a Muslim terrorist?

Maybe that's why they're so quiet about it. It would cause panic and riots.

8

 Jul 31, 2008 at 04:57 PM Anonymous Says:

how awfull for the other passengers to have witnessed such a brutal murder. and they were helpless to stop this monster.

9

 Jul 31, 2008 at 05:50 PM Anonymous Says:

a busload of ppl but no one was able to stop him!!!! something is strange????? they were just looking on as he was stabbing the innocent victim 40-50 times ITS INSANE!!!!!! i am not saying i would be the brave one but just stand there i dont know i am speechless

10

 Jul 31, 2008 at 06:26 PM anonymous Says:

her we go again does still someone think that we dont need guns everone needs a gun to protect himslf no other way to live today but i could tell would this be on a jewish bus there would deffenty be a few guys killing the murderer

11

 Jul 31, 2008 at 06:55 PM Hesh Says:

No one did anything to stop this killer?! This is crazy! What selfishness!!!

12

 Jul 31, 2008 at 07:21 PM anonymous Says:

Stockwell Day is from the Conservative party, the Conservatives are in power in Canada now on the Federal level.

Canada has awakened a bit, although there are still plenty of liberals in other parts of government.

13

 Jul 31, 2008 at 07:50 PM Anonymous Says:

a busload of people and noone tried stopping him during the 50 times he stabbed the guy? very strange...

14

 Jul 31, 2008 at 08:14 PM Anonymous Says:

And the guy walked to the front of the bus and showed the head? This is so disgusting and I am ready to throw up. if VIN can please take this story off it would be appreciated.


15

 Jul 31, 2008 at 08:42 PM Anonymous Says:

wow how terrible sounds like a scene from a horror show

16

 Jul 31, 2008 at 08:56 PM roiterfuchs Says:

The stabber is a victim too!!The liberal Canadians will now seriously seek out what terrible conditions society subjected this poor fellow to, that drove him to perform such an act. They will then set up a fund to help him.

17

 Jul 31, 2008 at 09:43 PM Anonymous Says:

While this story is terrible i may turn out that the murder was insane and in the past had never killed anyone and today was the day. I worked in a homeless shelter and there was one (of many ) with mental illness and one day this one guy went crazy and stabbed another guy( a really nice guy) and killed him. Since most mentally ill people do not kill and there is no way to know when and who will go off, people are free till it is too late. It is a risk we take in a free society verses others where people loss their rights when the powers thatbe make the rules.

18

 Jul 31, 2008 at 09:53 PM Anonymous Says:

thats what they call "taking a heavy weight of ones' shoulders"!

19

 Jul 31, 2008 at 11:53 PM Dylan Blacquiere Says:

From:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2008/07/31/greyhound-transcanada.html

For every last one of you who thinks the passengers were cowards and who say they'd have confronted him, well, fine. It's entirely possible that in confronting fear you would have ended up a second head for this n**job to be waving around out the window. What good would you have ended up doing then?

I'm a doctor. One of our cr***iest responsibilities in emergencies or mass casualties is triage; you have to make a decision, often very quickly, whether someone can be saved or whether they're too far gone. From what it sounds like, there's not a single thing that anyone could have done to save that kid's life; with a hunting knife and fifty to sixty slashes, wielded by a large man with what sounds like a fairly single minded determination to kill someone. It's a terrible choice, but likely that kid was doomed the moment this guy pulled the knife. By the time anyone realized what was happening, there were likely multiple wounds with one or more of them fatal. If he wasn't dead then, he probably would have been soon.

Do I know that for sure? Of course I don't. But in a split second decision, am I going to risk myself becoming a second victim or am I going to do what I can to make sure he doesn't have his pick of over thirty others? Am I a coward for knowing that the best thing I can do is try to protect the people who aren't hurt before this maniac goes after one of them?

The first thing anyone trying to be a hero would have to do would be to get everyone else off. By the time that happened, the kid's likely going to be dead. What will confronting the killer serve at that point? The passenger and the driver had the best idea out of a whole lot of cr***y choices - try to contain him until help arrives.

For some people, though, who feel that everyone who doesn't run to tackle a knife-wielding madman is a desensitized coward or an accomplice to murder, I'm getting the impression that a lot of people think that the only way to be a hero is to be the big, brave action hero who takes the man down. I'd like to think I could do that, too. I'd like to think I could try. But when you sit down and think about it, the chances of you being the hero are a lot less than you being the second casualty, or worse.

You do what you can for the people you can help. Triage. Cr***y mathematics for cr***y times. It sucks, but there it is.

And for those of you who say you would have rather died trying; that's brave, but odds are you would have done absolutely no good at all

20

 Aug 01, 2008 at 12:55 AM Anonymous Says:

This is just awful!

21

 Aug 01, 2008 at 05:34 AM bubba Says:

They will find him insane and he will live it up with 3 meals a day and play cards for the rest of his life on our dime....2 people should have died that day whether a cop did it or a passenger

22

 Aug 01, 2008 at 09:02 AM murray Says:

The doctor says there was nothing that could be done,and that anyone trying to stop the mayhem would be stabbed and just become another victim- that is Not absolutely certain. A citizen , properly licensed and trained, and armed with a gun could have ended this a lot quicker, may not have saved the kid, but his head would still be attached, and more importantly nobody else would have been in danger. I don't know the intricacies or legalities of Canadians and their (legal) ability to buy and carry guns.

23

 Aug 01, 2008 at 09:27 AM Anonymous Says:

who the heck are you all to judge the passengers? WHO? Are you all as cold to be soooo blind and narrow-minded! How dare you.

24

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