Canada bus beheading suspect says ‘please kill me’
By ROB GILLIES – 1 day ago
TORONTO (AP) — A man accused of stabbing and beheading another passenger on a Greyhound bus in Canada pleaded Tuesday in court for someone to “please kill me,” and was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
Prosecutor Joyce Dalmyn, who argued for the evaluation, revealed new details about the attack Wednesday night. She said Vince Weiguang Li had a plastic bag containing his victim’s ear, nose and part of a mouth in his pocket when officers arrested him. The only response officers received from him was: “‘I have to stay on the bus forever,'” Dalmyn said.
In an interview with police after his arrest, Li declined to speak for the most part, said Dalmyn. On four occasions, however, he did indicate in a low voice that he is guilty, she said.
Li, who immigrated to Canada from China in 2004, is charged with second-degree murder in the slaying of 22-year-old carnival worker Tim McLean — an attack which witnesses aboard the bus said appeared to be unprovoked. He has yet to enter a plea.
Li was scheduled to appear Tuesday to determine whether he should undergo psychiatric testing, but the judge in Portage La Prairie adjourned the hearing for a short recess to allow a legal aid attorney to confer with him.
Since his arrest, Li has declined to speak to prosecutors and his court-appointed attorney.
When asked again by the judge after the recess if he wanted a lawyer, Li shook his head and then quietly said “please kill me.”
Dalmyn said many heard the plea.
“There were some people in the courtroom that were taken aback by it,” Dalmyn told The Associated Press. “Those were the only words I heard him utter in the courtroom.”
Dalmyn said Li appeared to understand what the judge was asking him.
“He shook his head in response to questions from the judge. Some shakes of his appeared to be in the affirmative. Some of them appeared to be in the negative,” Dalmyn said.
He is due back in court Sept. 8.
Thirty-seven passengers were aboard the Greyhound from Edmonton, Alberta, to Winnipeg, Manitoba, as it traveled at night along a desolate stretch of the TransCanada Highway about 12 miles from Portage La Prairie. Some were napping and others watching the movie “The Legend of Zorro” on bus television screens when Li attacked McLean, allegedly stabbing him dozens of times.
As horrified passengers fled the bus, Li severed McLean’s head, displaying it to some of the passengers outside the bus, witnesses said.
A police officer at the scene reported seeing the attacker hacking off pieces of the victim’s body and eating them, according to a police tape leaked on the Internet.
A church pastor, Tom Castor, who helped hire Li soon after he immigrated in 2004 with his wife, Anna, said the man never showed any sign of anger or emotional problems when he worked there as a custodian. Church officials said they vetted Li by contacting references listed on his application and running a criminal record check.
More than 105,000 people have joined an online memorial group for McLean.
Accused chatted with victim’s co-worker
Prior to decapitation, Vince Li sat with victim’s colleague
Mike McIntyre, Winnipeg Free Press, Tuesday, August 05, 2008
WINNIPEG – The seeds for Tim McLean’s brutal murder on board a Greyhound bus last week may have been planted when the man accused of his murder, Vince Li, spent nearly an hour chatting up the victim’s co-worker during their ride through western Manitoba, the Winnipeg Free Press has learned.
Li, 40, took a seat at the front of the bus beside a woman named Stacy after getting on board in Brandon. The pair chatted and were even seen smoking together during a rest stop.
As the bus resumed its ill-fated journey towards Winnipeg, Li suddenly moved to the back of the bus and sat beside McLean, who was listening to his headphones and apparently asleep.
Moments later, McLean was being repeatedly stabbed until he was decapitated. Horrified passengers fled the bus but managed to lock the killer inside the bus.
McLean’s family and friends don’t believe Li’s change-of-seating was a coincidence. And they question why he was charged with second-degree murder and not first-degree murder, which indicates planning and premeditation.
“I have this unbelievably strong feeling that him sitting beside Stacy had something to do with this,” McLean’s former girlfriend, Alexandra Storey, told the Free Press in an exclusive interview Monday.
Tim and Stacy had become friends while working together at various western Canadian fairs through North American Midway Entertainment.
They were travelling together to Winnipeg – although seated separately in different areas of the bus – and had planned to meet up with a mutual friend in the city before all heading to British Columbia.
McLean’s loved ones now desperately want to speak with Stacy – her last name is not known to them – to find out more about her dealings with Li on the bus.
They only know that she quickly returned to B.C. after McLean’s killing, and presumably after an interview with police.
A call to North American Midway Entertainment seeking information about the woman wasn’t returned on Monday.
Storey is also haunted by a series of text messages McLean sent to her as he made his way through Manitoba. Her ex-boyfriend – to whom she remained very close – mentioned that some people were doing ecstasy on the bus.
Some medical experts say the combination of a powerful stimulant drug such as ecstasy, combined with pre-existing mental health conditions, could trigger a violent episode.
Storey isn’t buying it.
“Even if he was doing drugs, it wouldn’t make him do something like that. There’s no excuse,” she said.
A Winnipeg family that had extensive dealings with Li during his two years spent living in the city told the Free Press on Saturday they believe he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. However, he refused to go see a doctor to be diagnosed or prescribed any medication, despite a strong push from the family and members of a local church where he attended and briefly worked as a janitor.
Li’s erratic behaviour included making statements about always being watched and taking sudden, unexplained bus trips to various locales including The Pas and Toronto. He eventually left his wife, Anna, in 2006 and moved to Edmonton, where he began delivering newspapers and briefly worked at McDonald’s. Anna recently left Winnipeg to join him in Alberta.
Li last delivered newspapers on July 28, according to his boss in Edmonton, Vincent Augert. On Tuesday, he “fell off the face of the earth,” Augert said, which was unlike Li. Augert phoned him and a woman who identified herself as Li’s wife called back, saying Li’s disappearance wasn’t planned.
“She said to me, ‘I don’t know where he is, he had to leave town, it was an emergency,'” Augert said. Li had told Augert three weeks ago that he had plans to go to Winnipeg for a job interview.
It’s not officially known yet why Li was on the Greyhound headed for Winnipeg Wednesday. Li has no prior criminal record in Canada, according to RCMP.
Justice sources say his background in China will be examined closely as the case proceeds through the courts.
Storey told the Free Press they are disgusted by media reports that they believe paint the accused Li in a sympathetic light, regardless of any medical issues he may have.
“Everyone is talking about his background, how he went to church, was a good guy . . . He never gave Tim a chance,” she said.
“Mental illness or not, you don’t do that to another human being.”
They also want police to closely examine Li’s time in Canada for fear there could be other violent incidents that have yet to be uncovered.
McLean’s family is currently in the planning stages for his funeral, which is expected to be a small, private affair despite the worldwide attention and condolences his killing has generated, she said.