Vince Li stood in a Manitoba courtroom Tuesday pleading for it all to end.
“Please kill me,” he said quietly, in a court packed with journalists and members of the victim's family.
Mr. Li, 40, is accused of stabbing and beheading 22-year-old Tim McLean, a complete stranger, who was sleeping next to him on a Greyhound bus bound for Winnipeg on July 30.
The judge ordered a psychiatric assessment to determine whether Mr. Li is fit to stand trial and whether he can be held criminally responsible for his actions. He has so far refused to speak to a lawyer.
Court was told Mr. Li spent four days in a Canadian psychiatric facility at some point, but the Crown is still trying to determine where and when. Crown lawyer Joyce Dalmyn said Mr. Li has not yet offered any explanation for what occurred aboard Greyhound 1170.
“No explanation, no note, almost nothing verbal,” Ms. Dalmyn said. “There is nothing to indicate it's anything other than a random and unprovoked attack.”
Meanwhile, new details have emerged about how Mr. Li spent the 24 hours before Mr. McLean was killed, including that he spent a night on a public bench, sold a laptop to a teenager that contained personal letters and photos, as well as a note that expressed feelings of guilt at leaving China, and confusion about life in Canada.
Mr. Li first stepped off the Greyhound bus from Edmonton in the tiny western Manitoba town of Erickson, population 456, just before 6 p.m. last Tuesday, July 29.
He strode across the street from the convenience store, which doubles as a bus depot, carrying five pieces of luggage under his arms. He was wearing small black sunglasses, a green shirt and a hat, and looked perfectly put together, like a businessman, said Darren Beatty, a 15-year-old student who works at a local gas station.
“The whole time I seen him he never took off his sunglasses,” Mr. Beatty said.
He watched him sit down on a shaded wooden bench next to the Co-Op grocery on Main Street, arranging his bags around him and resting his arms as though he were sitting in an arm chair.
He didn't move for the next three hours.
Around 9 p.m., he walked into the M and M store, where David Dauphinais's husband Darren was working alone.
Mr. Li hung around for what felt like ages, making Darren extremely uncomfortable. He called his husband, saying he was afraid to walk home.
“He was really freaked out,” Mr. Dauphinais said. “He said there was something about this guy that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.
“Darren's a treaty Indian. When Darren gets nervous about somebody, I listen.”
Mr. Dauphinais rushed back from a meeting, only to find that Mr. Li had left the store when another customer walked in.
That night neither could sleep, fretting about the mysterious stranger. Mr. Dauphinais got out of bed at 3 a.m. and went down to check on his store. He saw Mr. Li sitting across the street, bolt upright on the bench, eyes wide open.
The following morning, Mr. Beatty was riding his bike when he saw a laptop on the curb. The screen was open and a hand-written sign said “$600 for sale, or best offer.”
He circled on his bike, noted the brand-new Acer 4200, and approached Mr. Li.
He offered $100, then immediately lowered it to $50. Mr. Li contemplated for a moment.
“That's probably enough to get you a bus ticket,” Mr. Beatty said. They settled on $60, plus a bag.
“I just thought he was a guy having a hard time,” he said, adding he never felt threatened. “He seemed lost. As I was talking to him about [the laptop] he muttered something about America. He had a thick accent so it was hard to understand.
