Another Virginia Tech tragedy: student murdered

[I Digress]

The hed I saw on a story was so confusing. Until I read the story, I thought "Virginia tech slaying victim' was referencing someone who had been shot the last time and got decapitated today. Which I guess just goes to show the other wasn't all that long ago.

 

[Gomer]

Sounds very similar to that bus incident in Canada where a passenger decapitated another while others ran out of the bus screaming.

Wasn't that guy using a huge-ass sword though? I'd run from that.

It was a hunting knife. Weird thing though, that guy was originally from China too.

 

[KYSportsWriter]

Reading into it, which I know is always dangerous, it says they knew each other. The police know that because of their emergency contact information. So apparently, if I'm reading that right, at least one of them listed the other as their emergency contact.

Boyfriend/girlfriend? Exes? Relatives? They had to know each other before school if one was listed on the other's emergency contact form.

Am I reading that wrong?

They don't have to have known each other before hand.

Apparently, she had no other family or friends here and had just began meeting new people on campus. And while him being an emergency contact is a little weird, I can understand why the school might allow something like that.

 

[schiezainc]

So this guy, in a public setting, had time to cut the victim's head off with a knife.

I'm guessing that, unless he's got a ******* battle axe, that's something that you couldn't do in one cut.

How the **** does he not get stopped and have the ever-loving **** beat out of him by the other people in the restaurant?

Sounds very similar to that bus incident in Canada where a passenger decapitated another while others ran out of the bus screaming.

That's exactly what I was thinking. Cue scheizanic with his machismo ... ::)

Machismo? All I said was that I found it odd that the dude had all day to cut that guy's head off. Nobody on that bus said a single word. I found it cowardly that a whole bus full of people could care less about a stranger and would allow something like this to happen.

As I said there, though, until I'm in that situation I don't know how I'd respond. I'd like to think I wouldn't run from the bus and start sprinting down the street because, hey, it's not my head.

In this situation, it's the same thing.

I guess I'm just delusional to think that someone, anyone really, would be willing to help someone who obviously can't help themselves.

Before I go off on a rant, however, let me wrap it up and say that there are heroes and there are cowards. Pilot of recent airplane crash? Hero. He didn't go "Oh, **** the plane is falling. Well, **** all ya'll. EJECT". He did his best to save lives. Athlete who helped subdue psycho on plane a couple weeks ago? Hero.

Seems there's too few of those, however.

 

[93Devil]

I heard on a local newscast that there were seven people in the Au Bon Pain when this happened.

That is not exactly a ton of people.

 

[schiezainc]

I heard on a local newscast that there were seven people in the Au Bon Pain when this happened.

That is not exactly a ton of people.

At the school, I understand the rationale for not wanting to get involved. The 2007 tragedy is still fresh in students' minds and, really, the police got there in like a minute.

The bus though? There had to be like 50 people on it. You telling me they couldn't have rushed him? They may not have saved the life of the victim, but they wouldn't have allowed him an hour of playtime with the corpse either.

 

[markvid]

He had a huge knife...I wouldn't get near that either.

 

[Hammer Pants]

What the **** is wrong with some people? Who ****ing decapitates someone in a coffee shop?

That really sucks for all the VT kids, too. My cousin goes there, and I love that stunningly beautiful campus.

 

[KG]

If I have no weapon, I'm not going to tackle a man with a big hunting knife. I wouldn't stand a chance.

 

[Pancamo]

If I have no weapon, I'm not going to tackle a man with a big hunting knife. I wouldn't stand a chance.

Shouldn't there be knives, pots, pans, tables or chairs the place that could have been thrown at the guy.

 

[buckweaver]

By the way, schiezanic and any other machismo hero-wannabes, this is why you take precaution in getting involved with an armed suspect. This is not some damn video game:

http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2009/01/23/stabbings_at_child_center_kill_2_kids_1_adult/

He said the man wielded one, nearly 8-inch knife and had painted his face white with black patches around the eyes.
One worker tried but failed to disarm the intruder and another was stabbed to death, Du Four said.

 

[markvid]

Sorry, buck..kids are involved, then i do too. Especially if they are in my care.
Yours isn't the best comparison.

 

[buckweaver]

I'm not saying don't ever get involved. I'm saying check your misguided bravado at the door, unless you're absolutely positive you can subdue the attacker. Makes no difference if it's kids or not. That worker is dead, too.

 

[Freelance Hack]

I'm not saying don't ever get involved. I'm saying check your misguided bravado at the door, unless you're absolutely positive you can subdue the attacker. Makes no difference if it's kids or not. That worker is dead, too.

Sorry -- if it involves kids, then I'm not sure I could live with myself if I didn't at least try to get involved.

 

[buckweaver]

I'm not saying don't ever get involved. I'm saying check your misguided bravado at the door, unless you're absolutely positive you can subdue the attacker. Makes no difference if it's kids or not. That worker is dead, too.

Sorry -- if it involves kids, then I'm not sure I could live with myself if I didn't at least try to get involved.

Look, all I'm saying is, don't be stupid about it. Call for help. Scream. Find a weapon. Do it in numbers ... anything that gives you a chance against an armed suspect.

Bum-rushing an attacker with a knife who caught you by surprise because you "couldn't live with yourself" is idiotic machismo that's better suited for G.I. Joe or schiezanic. You're not helping those kids, you're not helping yourself, you're not helping anybody.

And more often than not, you're the one who ends up dead.

It's just not that simple.

 

[markvid]

Buck, you are comparing something that happened in a cafe vs people whose job it is to be responsible to those kids.

 

[buckweaver]

No, I'm comparing the all-purpose instinct to "get involved" with the reality of your chances to subdue an armed attacker who all of a sudden starts attacking people.

Or is your instinct in that split-second somehow going to change whether that attacker pulls out a knife at a cafe or at a day care center?

 

[schiezainc]

Buck, you're forgetting one thing. What gets me **** on my people here is my opinion on the bus incident. My opinion is, and always will be, that a bus full of people in a small, confined space could have at least tried to subdue that maniac instead of running away.

You get four or five guys, bum rush him with seat cushions and not only are you (theoretically) ok, you prevent said psycho from cutting the dude's frakking head off.

You may not have saved his live, but you prevent the family from having to live with the most morbid details of that crime.

But, I'm sorry, what was I thinking? If you run off the bus fast enough maybe you can outrun your shame.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

I have read that police tactics advise staying 20 feet away from someone armed with a knife, unless you are armed. And that's for a trained combatant.

 

[buckweaver]

So explain to me how you're going to get "four or five guys" to formulate a plan of attack, agree to a plan of attack and execute that plan of attack ... all the while this creep's got a knife and he's acting psychotic on the bus/cafe/whatever.

You'd be lucky if you can get one other person to help, let alone several. And even then, you're still unarmed and facing a psycho with a knife.

I repeat: idiotic machismo, even if I can empathize with the instinct to get involved (especially if kids are around.) You sound like a G.I. Joe wanna-be.