Brutalized on a City Bus : The Tim McLean Case

<p>As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Tim Mclean with me today. <br>On July 30, 2008, 22-year-old Tim McLean was travelling on a Greyhound bus through Manitoba, Canada, when he was killed by fellow passenger Vince Weiguang Li. McLean had been sleeping or resting in his seat near the rear of the bus when Li suddenly attacked him with a knife. The assault was unprovoked, and terrified passengers and the driver escaped after the bus stopped near Portage la Prairie.</p><p>Li stayed on the bus after the passengers fled. During a police standoff that lasted several hours, he decapitated and mutilated McLean’s body and consumed parts of it. When he attempted to climb through a bus window, officers arrested him.</p><p>Li was charged with second-degree murder, but a Manitoba judge found him not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder in March 2009. Psychiatric evidence established that Li had schizophrenia and was in a severe psychotic state during the killing; he had believed he was following what he perceived as divine instructions and that McLean posed a threat. He was confined in a secure psychiatric hospital rather than given a prison sentence.</p><p>After years of psychiatric treatment and supervised reintegration, review-board decisions concluded that Li, who later changed his name to Will Bakern, no longer posed a significant threat to public safety. He received an absolute discharge in February 2017, ending the Review Board’s supervision; McLean’s family strongly criticized the outcome.</p>