Canadian bus beheading

[china]

[SIZE=+1]Canadian bus beheading accused reported mentally ill[/SIZE]
China National News
Tuesday 5th August, 2008
(IANS)

​

Vince Li, the 40-year-old Chinese immigrant who beheaded and reportedly cannibalized his co-passenger last week, suffered from mental ill-health.

Edmonton-based man, who came to Canada from China four years ago, has been charged with second-degree murder and beheading of 22-year-old Tim McLean from Winnipeg last Wednesday.

Since his arrest after a stand-off with police at the crime site on Trans-Canada Highway early Thursday, the Chinese immigrant has not spoken a word as he remains under suicide watch in jail in Winnipeg.

Handcuffed and heavily shackled, Li will appear in court Tuesday where the judge will decide whether he needs an immediate psychiatric assessment. If convicted of second-degree murder, Li could be jailed for life. He would be eligible for parole after 10 years.

Outraged by the crime, many Canadians are demanding that the charges be upgraded to first-degree murder. If jailed for life on charges of first-degree murder, he would not be eligible for parole for 25 years.

Reports quote a female family friend as saying that Li was a deeply troubled man who refused to seek psychiatric help.

``He needed help, but he just wouldn't get it,'' she was quoted as saying by a Winnipeg newspaper. ``He was kind of a lost soul. It was as if he was always looking for something,'' said the family friend who is a mental health worker.

``He was definitely schizophrenic, probably paranoid schizophrenic. He needed help but he just wouldn't get it,'' she was quoted as saying.

Recalling her conversation with Li once after he was given a red-light ticket (challaned) by traffic police, she said, ``He started talking about how 'they were after me, there was nothing there.''

The priest of the Grant Memorial Baptist Church in Winnipeg, where the alleged killer found his first job in Canada in 2004, said Li exhibited no signs of trouble.

Li reportedly left the church job in 2005, and with his wife Anna Li moved to Edmonton where he found work at a McDonald's and as a newspaper delivery man.

Some time ago, he was reportedly hired by Wal-Mart. But he was sacked last month after some problems with a fellow worker.

The priest, who spoke with Li's wife, told the media that she was feeling devastated, fearing for her own future as her husband faces life behind bars.

Reports say Li delivered newspapers last Monday, and then left for Winnipeg probably to attend a job interview. Police has not yet released the body of the victim to his family for burial.

 

[karrie]

schizophrenia, especially paranoid schizophrenia, doesn't really account for the sort of behavior that was described on the bus. The dead pan, calm, robotic nature just doesn't mesh with a schizophrenic break. Severe severe depression and an attempt at suicide by cop... that would make sense. But, paranoid schizophrenia? After having smoked and chatted with other passengers and not raising alarm bells? I really don't think so.

 

[Scott Free]

A Wendigo spirit makes sense too. Odd though that he was Chinese? Maybe the Wendigo is real?

Kidding aside. He did the deed because he felt like it. His diagnosis is coming after the fact which is too easy. Of coarse he is mentally ill, just like of coarse there are Windigo. He is the proof of both.

Then there is reality: people can do whatever they like. Laws and rules are for people who live in clouds.

 

[Risus]

unfortunately, he'll get off because he is a loonie... schizophrenia is just an excuse as well.

 

[dj03]

A Wendigo spirit makes sense too.

++ for usage, I have only run across that word once before.

 

[Lester]

schizophrenia, especially paranoid schizophrenia, doesn't really account for the sort of behavior that was described on the bus. The dead pan, calm, robotic nature just doesn't mesh with a schizophrenic break. Severe severe depression and an attempt at suicide by cop... that would make sense. But, paranoid schizophrenia? After having smoked and chatted with other passengers and not raising alarm bells? I really don't think so.

What do you think was his problem, what would cause somebody to go off the deep end this bad?

 

[lone wolf]

What do you think was his problem, what would cause somebody to go off the deep end this bad?

I wonder if the guy's seen some heavy duty trauma ... as in military stuff

 

[karrie]

What do you think was his problem, what would cause somebody to go off the deep end this bad?

I'd guess severe depression which lead him to attempt suicide by cop. I don't know that he's mentally ill anymore than any other depressed individual. I think he just was dead to the world and decided to go out in a way folks would remember, after working marginalized job after marginalized job, not being noticed by anyone in any positive fashion.

 

[tracy]

Depression wouldn't lead someone to eat another person though. That's too far gone to be in touch with reality. Paranoid schizophrenia or a psychotic break would be a better fit. The "calm" manner is meaningless. Paranoid schizophrenics can maintain the illusion of normalcy when they are convinced it's necessary or the people who are after them will get them. It's the scariest thing about them. You think everything's fine until you're attacked. A friend of mine finally left psych nursing after that happened to her. She was having a nice conversation with a patient who was making excellent progress. Then she woke up in the emergency room. The patient grabbed the phone at the desk when she turned her back and wacked her in the head. He had to because she was putting ground up glass into his food to try to kill him....

 

[karrie]

Depression wouldn't lead someone to eat another person though. That's too far gone to be in touch with reality.....

Really? Given a steady diet of the internet I wouldn't assume insanity to be a reason for eating someone if I felt that the person was just looking for attention. I get what you're saying about schizophrenics even though it hasn't been my experience, but, I don't think this guy had to be anything other than desperate to be seen and remembered.

 

[Praxius]

Related News:

Greyhound suspect whispers 'please kill me'
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080805/bus_killing_080805/20080805?hub=Canada

Vince Li, the accused in the Greyhound bus beheading of Tim McLean appears in a Portage La Prairie court on Tuesday, August 5, 2008.

The man accused of fatally stabbing and beheading a 22-year-old man aboard a Greyhound bus made a court appearance Tuesday, and whispered for someone to "please kill me."

Vincent Weiguang Li, 40, appeared before Judge Michel Chartier Tuesday in Portage La Prairie, Man. but was silent for virtually all of the hour-long proceeding.

He responded to most questions by shaking his head or nodding. But when Chartier asked if he wanted to speak to a lawyer, Li shook his head no and said, "Please kill me."

There was a gasp from people in the courtroom who heard the remark.

The judge then ordered a psychiatric evaluation for Li, who is charged with second-degree murder in the slaying of Tim McLean. That process will start Thursday.

As part of her submissions to secure the evaluation, Crown attorney Joyce Dalmyn revealed new details about the gruesome murder. According to a police report, officers found a plastic bag containing an ear, nose and part of mouth in the pocket of the accused.

Dalmyn also said that when officers confronted Li, he would only say: "I have to stay on the bus forever."

The attack occurred last Wednesday evening outside Portage La Prairie, which is located about 80 kilometres west of Winnipeg. Without any apparent provocation, Li allegedly began stabbing McLean, who had reportedly been dozing. Terrified passengers poured off the bus.

The accused then allegedly decapitated McLean and paraded around the bus with his head. Li is also accused of consuming parts of McLean's body during his subsequent four-hour standoff with police.

None of the allegations against Li have been proven in court and he still has not entered a plea to the charge against him. His next court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 8.

McLean's family and friends are shattered by the violent death suffered by their loved one.

People who knew Li, who was married and who came to Canada from China in 2004, say this level of violence is not something they would have ever expected from him.

However, there are suggestions that the accused had been showing evidence of mental health troubles in the period leading up to the attack.

Li sells computer

The day before McLean was murdered, Li was briefly seen in the small town of Erickson, Manitoba, where a 15-year-old boy said he bought a laptop computer from the man.

Darren Beatty told CTV Winnipeg Li was trying to sell the computer for $600, but Beatty talked him down to just $60. He also said the computer contained emails written in a Chinese language. Beatty used an Internet translator to read them, and one appeared to talk about the beauty of Canada, but also of apparent guilt Li felt for leaving his homeland years before.

Police have seized the computer as evidence.

In another development, Greyhound has ended an ad campaign that touted bus travel as being a worry-free experience.

Pssh... ya think?

The ad said, "There's a reason you've never heard of 'bus rage.'"

A company spokesperson said the company feels the year-long campaign is no longer appropriate, given the tragedy outside Portage La Prairie.

The campaign had officially ended before the July 30 killing of McLean, but some ads are still up, said Abby Wambaugh.

 

[missile]

He was working at WalMart, and I can picture him giving directions to customers "Knives? If you want the large, sharp ones, try our Sporting Goods Section":smile:

 

[tracy]

Really? Given a steady diet of the internet I wouldn't assume insanity to be a reason for eating someone if I felt that the person was just looking for attention. I get what you're saying about schizophrenics even though it hasn't been my experience, but, I don't think this guy had to be anything other than desperate to be seen and remembered.

That's a pretty extreme way to get attention.

Schizophrenia has subtypes. The paranoid ones are the best able to blend in with society. They have the dellusions and hallucinations the other forms of schizophrenia share, but the other schizophrenic symptoms (like the inability to initiate plans, disorganized thinking, inappropriate verbal responses, etc.) are milder or even completely absent. My experience is more with disorganized and undifferentiated schizophrenia. I couldn't imagine any of them being capable of doing something like this just cause they can't hold it together long enough to make a plan and follow through. My friend who was attacked worked at Riverview back in the day and her stories are amazing.

 

[Nuggler]

I think, just for a brief moment in time; he lost his head!









I KNOW I KNOW, BUT YOU WERE DAMN WELL THINKING IT!!!

 

[madmolecule]

If depression is severe enough, it can become psychotic, where (like in schizophrenia), the person hears voices, or develops strange beliefs that are out of touch with reality. So he could have heard voices and developed beliefs that a stranger posed some threat to him. Saying that he wants to be killed, and giving up an almost-new laptop for $60, also might be symptoms of suicidal depression. What wouldn't fit with this are the news descriptions that, at the beginning of his trip, he had dressed "like a businessman" (severely depressed people tend to neglect their appearance) and said he had a job interview. Apparently he had also previously made bus trips to other towns, saying he was looking to buy land, when in reality he had no money. Since the grandiose plans that are out of touch reality fiit more with mania, one wonders whether he had a bipolar disorder that swung between mania and depression.

 

[Scott Free]

I think, just for a brief moment in time; he lost his head!

This sort of thing can be expected when people don't have their heads screwed on tight. :-?

But I should be careful, I don't want to stick my neck out too far.

 

[Ron in Regina]

How about, "Welcome to Greyhound! Where ya' beheading?"

 

[Scott Free]

I hear they have a lot of head space.

 

[Ron in Regina]

We're a bunch of sick bastards.

 

[Scott Free]

Ah, sure, but Karrie was right that it is a copping mechanism but I think it's head and shoulders above anything else we could be doing.