http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/07/31/canada.bus/index.html

In Canada, on a Greyhound Bus, a man repeatedly stabbed the stranger sleeping next to him with a large knife, before cutting the guy's head off and holding it up for everyone to see…

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


This is one of the most bizarre, barbaric, nightmarish things I've heard about in a long time. This almost sounds worse than the decapitation of Nick Berg…

Drugs + Psychosis + Knife = nightmare

Ugh… not sure if I would've posted that story, Goulish.

I think instead of it not leaving that guy ‘for a while’, it'll probably be with him forever.

Yeah, I hate to be the messenger of gruesome news, but people need to know about the evil that exists in our world. Frankly I'm suprised that a bus-full of 37 passengers didn't even try to disarm a guy with a damn knife, and stop him from decapitating a person. Have we really become this cowardly & desensitized in modern society? Even if the victim's fate was already sealed from the initial stab wound, I'd like to think that people would have at least attempted to save the victim by disarming the attacker, and preventing him from going so far in his gruesome act. …All I will say is that, it's because of these kinds of incidents that people (in all nations of the world) should have the right to bear arms. There's virtually no excuse for something this henious to occur on a public bus filled with free individuals….

It's easy to judge from the safety of the arm chair.

They could've tried stop him, but that fact was simply omitted from the article.

And maybe they didn't, but could we honestly say we'd try to under those circumstances?

Ugh that was very sad and creepy at the same time. (*egon)

Ghoulishfright
…All I will say is that, it's because of these kinds of incidents that people (in all nations of the world) should have the right to bear arms. There's virtually no excuse for something this henious to occur on a public bus filled with free individuals….

Oh please. Guns aren't magic. How exactly do you figure someone with a gun is supposed to shoot a guy on a crowded bus full of people and it doesn't cause more harm?

And as for the “why didn't they stop him” nonsense - middle of the night, no warning (passengers said he was fine and interacting normally at a smoke break just before they got back on the bus), you wake up to hideous screaming (and trust me, most people haven't heard anything like it), and there's a madman with a massive bowie knife slicing a guy open and sawing off his head.

CBC

“He must have stabbed him 50 times or 60 times,” said Caton, who jumped out of his seat when he realized what was happening and began ushering passengers to the front of the bus.

There's the smartest move, right there.

Someone had a psychotic break - you feel like charging a genuine psychotic with a knife? Nobody's stupid enough to charge a knife if they don't have to.

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.

Again, smartest move they could have made in a messed-up situation.

It's because of Canadian gun regulation this story wasn't headlined “X dead and X injured by gunman.”

castewar
Oh please. Guns aren't magic. How exactly do you figure someone with a gun is supposed to shoot a guy on a crowded bus full of people and it doesn't cause more harm?

First of all, I never mentioned guns specifically. Certainly I'm pro-gun, but the right to bear “arms” means weapons in general. If half the people on that bus just had shillelaghs on hand, they could have stopped that bastard in a heartbeat. And although it might not have saved the victim from the initial stab wounds, as I have said, it would have at least prevented things from going so far. Mind you, I'm not at all insinuating that the other passengers acted “incorrectly” in this situation, or that they are somehow to “blame” for not “stopping” him. I'm merely looking at what could've been done, idealistically, to prevent and/or lessen the scope of this hellish tragedy. I don't pretend to be “holier than thou,” and I can't say for certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that I would've acted any differently in this situation, but I hope that if ever I find myself in such a nightmare, I (and the others) would have the selfless courage to do the idealistic thing by swiftly yet cautiously approaching the killer and attempting to stop him. That doesn't mean “charge” at him, but it doesn't mean run off of the bus either. This guy had a damn knife. Not a shotgun, not even a sword. If one were to confront him, cautiously & intelligently (even if unarmed), it's highly unlikely that they would be fatally or even critically injured. Even if the confrontation resulted in a standstill, that would be enough to disengage the attacker from the victim, and constitute a “victory” of sorts. And if armed with an equal-or-greater weapon, the chances of stopping him would be even greater. This is why people ought to be armed wherever they are. If not with a firearm, then with something. Psychotic killers like this are counting on people not being armed and/or courageous. Trust me, I hate violence and physical confrontation. But I hate watching my fellow humans die needless, gruesome deaths even more.

What Kingpin said is very true: “It's easy to judge from the safety of the arm chair.” But I think the best thing to do after learning of incidents such as these, rare as they may be, is to learn and to question. Not to say “Sh*t happens, but what can you do about it?” but to ask yourself what it is you can do to prevent, or to deal with, similar situations. I think the answer is to arm yourself. Not just physically, but mentally & spiritually as well; with knowledge & courage, etc. We as individuals should know how to defend ourselves and one another from harm, and how to protect our most important asset; Life.

Given the guy was able to decapitate a human being in what, based from the articles seem to suggest, was pretty short order, it sounds like a considerable ‘knife’ was used… It certainly doesn't sound like a penknife or even a kitchen blade…

Getting everyone off the bus, and detaining the killer without jumping him is all the had to do.

Clubs, knives, guns, whatever, wouldn't have saved the guy, and since nobody else got hurt and the killer didn't get away, it's pretty safe to assume they didn't need them.

I hope you never had to face the decision either, but if you ever do, I hope your first thought isn't “let's jump the guy.”