Capricorn
My wife and I were headed down to Winnipeg, Manitoba, for school. Then the bus happened. I have found it very difficult since then.
We had started in the Northwest Territories and changed buses in Edmonton, Alberta, around midnight. At the time of the attack later that day, I was sitting with my wife on the bus in the third row from the back on the driver’s side, right across the aisle next to Mr. Li.
Mr. Li had boarded the bus in Brandon, Manitoba sometime between 5 and 7 p.m. the next day. I noticed Mr. Li right away, in fact very much so. He just seemed like a very weird person and all out of place. He was watching everyone that was on the bus, and seemed very paranoid.
Originally he’d been sitting at the front of the bus. When he moved to the back of the bus after a smoke break between Brandon and Winnipeg, he was looking at each and every person as he was walking, just watching everyone. Then he sat across the aisle from my wife and me.
I didn’t mention anything to my wife about my impression of him; I just kept it to myself. I’ve taken the bus many, many times, and have always noticed a fair few odd people on the bus.
Garnet Caton, who was one of the first witnesses interviewed, told the media he heard a bloodcurdling scream. The scream was coming from Tim. I heard it as well, but at that point I was already up to the front of the bus. I had actually seen Mr. Li pull out the knife and stab Tim. Sitting right there, I had been the first person to see stuff.
I’d been watching Mr. Li before it happened.
COMMENTS (9)
RATE THIS STORY
This story is about my personal experiences at a place...
I went to a protest in Rome, Italy, November 29th, 2008. The police presence was...
Comments
Re: I Witnessed The Greyhound Bus Murder
By Spacehogking, December 6, 2008 at 19:11To the author.. My god. How could you have witnessed this, and not grabbed his arms from behind him, knocked him out, or ANYTHING?! This is cowardice at its best, and it actually makes me cringe, wince, and think. I'm only fourteen, I probably wouldn't have had a chance at stopping Mr. Li. If I was a full-grown adult, I would have undoubtedly tried to stop him, and encourage other members of the bus to do so.
How? How could you watch this man be stabbed to death without doing anything? I don't believe in a God, but if there was one, I'm sure it would be very, very disappointing.
Re: I Witnessed The Greyhound Bus Murder
By Anonymous, November 17, 2008 at 13:50Sounds like some serious therapy is needed for everyone involved. I think I need therapy just from reading about it! And I really don't believe anyone could have stopped this madman, it was a horrible twist of fate.
Re: I Witnessed The Greyhound Bus Murder
By Anonymous, November 15, 2008 at 05:16Essentially all this issue boils down to is - courage. I would like to know where in history people’s guts and courage has been over-taken by total selfishness?? To the people on here defending the people on the bus for their inaction, you are all as cowardly as those people. You seem to have the idea that I am asking the people on the bus get between Tim and the knife. Of course doing that would have been stupid! You attack the (sadistic) perpetrator from behind, not in front!! You all seem convinced if anyone had tried to help that they too would have been butchered to death and I do not understand that at all. Ofcourse if only 1 or 2 other people had been on the bus and helped, they too probably would have been killed, but there were 36, 36 other people on that bus!!!!! Even if only a fraction of those people had banded together, ofcourse they could have overpowered the perpetrator. There is absolutely strength in numbers.
And to put some perspective on this, can any of you imagine if Tim had been a small child being butchered to death, you honestly think it is ok for 36 people not to assist a child who is screaming for help?? Any person should be assisted, regardless of whether they are a child or not.
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." - Edmund Burke
Re: I Witnessed The Greyhound Bus Murder
By Anonymous, November 14, 2008 at 21:13hi i am 14 and yes this is scary very scary scary and i heard he started eating bits of the man! how dare he. ewwwy =[ i hate the man that did that. everyone does!
and i can tell you one thing, i am NEVER travelling to canada! =[ ever!!! and i really wanted to go there
as for you, KRISTEN!!,,, imagine if you were there.. would you run over to a man flinging a knife around? i know you would want to but you dont know what u would do unless you were really there. it is for their own personal safety that they all got off the bus. after all, you always put yourself first, then others.
i learnt that in school, if someone is in danger, you must think of yourself first, and be aware of the dangers of helping the other person. you dont jump into the water to save a person drowning, if you cant swim yourself! but i really am sorry for the poor man that was unlucky enough to be targeted. i am soooo angry at that mean mean man. >:[
Re: I Witnessed The Greyhound Bus Murder
By msruby, September 2, 2008 at 19:18Reading this story made me sick to my stomach. I agree with Kristin.
This situation is exposing a tragedy and I am sure all the people who survived are experiencing a fair bit of vicarious trauma for witnessing something so horrific and my heart and sympathy is surely with them, to an extent. There was certainly a case of bystander effect at work here. Whereas, there were a number of people on the bus who could have potentially helped but there was a great diffusion of responsibility. People developed excuses in their mind "I'm a woman", "I have to save my family" "He's dead anyways" and people got themselves to safety and literally watched a fellow human being decapitated. Somehow I highly doubt Tim planned to be a human sacrifice so others could flee to safety and breathe collective sighs of relief.
No, I was not on the bus.
No, I cannot fully comprehend the horrendous situation.
But we must ask ourselves, did Tim need a relative on that bus for people to care about his life? Wasn't he worth even attempting to save? I don’t ask these questions to place blame or cast judgement, but rather to remind us to the reality that as human beings we orient ourselves in societies, collectives to help each other. While I don’t have all the answers, I know no one believes in their heart that this was the “right thing”.
Re: I Witnessed The Greyhound Bus Murder
By otayyo, August 23, 2008 at 02:39I must say Kristen, your comment is very harsh, and lacks empathy for the people involved. I don't really understand why your comment asks for the answer to an impossibly rhetorical question.
The people on the bus did not know what was happening, and the one guy who saw what was happening was well aware of the more vulnerable people surrounding him, and tried to alert everyone to leave harms way. Seriously, do you realize how quickly the victim would have suffered life-ending injuries? More than one stab wound is hard to survive in the middle of nowhere, let alone multiple stab wounds to the torso. THE GUY HAD A HUGE KNIFE! You talk a big talk, but you know damn well you would not have tried a damn thing, and that is reasonable.
I would absolutely admire anyone brave enough to stand in the way of a very large man with a very large knife, but that just is not sensible. The guy could have got his hand hacked off. The psycho was focused in on his already dead victim, and a physical distraction might have caused him to swing wildly in to the crowd of people trying to flee, causing further panic, not allowing speedy escape. Doesn't sound better to me. Would you rather have seen a headline that read "3 killed, many injured in Bus Attack"?
My heart goes out to the family of the victim, but the witnesses are also victims, and not cowards. Please have some respect. Honestly, you can't know much about human nature in history if you expected people to act much different. We are lucky the psycho only killed one person, and will spend his life in jail.
You claim to hear stories every day about people risking their lives to save others. That should tell you there are plenty of good people around, but don't judge what you do not understand. Unless you are there, it is hard to know. Every situation is unique.
Re: I Witnessed The Greyhound Bus Murder
By nick, August 23, 2008 at 22:00Amen! I it is harsh and it shows alot of ignorance and a lack of intellegence.
Re: I Witnessed The Greyhound Bus Murder
By Kris H, August 19, 2008 at 08:56I have been deeply saddened by what happened to Tim Mclean. I am in Australia and am trying to find out why no one on the bus helped Tim as soon as the attack started, why everyone just fled off the bus? Are there reports in Canada at the moment that are indicating why??
I just feel so ill over what happened, that not only was Tim unlucky enough to be targeted, but there weren't a bus full of people who tried to help him by storming the perpetrator. I'm a woman, and even we can do something. If I've got a bunch of other women also helping, overpowering the perpetrator is possible.
You hear about so many people who risk their lives everyday to save someone else, and I just find it baffling that everyone just ran. Of course getting the children off was important, but I just can't believe that Tim was so unlucky that there weren't a few people on that bus who quickly banded together and stormed the perpetrator.
To be honest I find the fact that no one tried to help Tim almost as disturbing as his murder. I feel so completely creeped out; I could be anywhere now, in a shop, on a train, a bus, walking down the street with lots of people around me, and if someone decides to stab me, everyone around me will just run. That is so devastating to read that Tim tried to fight back, no one else tried to fight for him, but he tried. I just cannot believe this. If you get any more bits of infomation as the picture of what happens becomes clearer, I would greatly appreciate hearing it!
Thanks again,
Kristin
Re: I Witnessed The Greyhound Bus Murder
By nick, August 22, 2008 at 20:05Hi Kristen. I'm a Canadian living in Canada. I'm sure everyone is abit tramatized by this story and i'm can tell you it's even more creepy that something like this happened in my own country.
I think at the time this happened most people on the bus where asleep, and most people probably didn't even realize what was happening until it was too late cause the stabbing was apparently very rapid. It's hard to say what a persons instinct would be in a situation like this, considering how rare this kind of a situation is. I think very few people in the world can imagine what it would be like. Most witnesses said that it was very dark and hard to see what was going on, and most thought that it was just a drunken fist fight.
I think my first instinct would be to get the bus stopped, cause until then more lives are at risk considering there is nowhere else to go on a enclosed moving bus.
Vince Li was apparently a very big man, said to be well over 200 pounds. I think if i were Tim I would understand why no one came to my rescue and be greatful that i was the only one hurt (maybe that's a canadian thing), but i would have also fought back aswell.
Just remember, these people were on a bus, in the dark, at night and aside from maybe one person, the rest of the people didn't know what was happening till it was too late. I think the one person who saw what was happening the quickest did the right thing.
NICK