WINNIPEG - Almost two years after he stabbed, beheaded and carved up a fellow passenger on a Greyhound bus, Vince Li may get the right to short, supervised walks around the grounds of the hospital where he is being held.
Li is responding well to treatment inside the locked wing of the Selkirk Mental Heath Centre and should be allowed brief walks outside, Dr. Steven Kremer, Li's psychiatrist, told the Manitoba Review Board Monday.
Li would be supervised by two people at all times on the unsecured grounds, and the walks would be no more than 15 minutes long at first, Kremer said.
But the Crown and victim Tim McLean's family are opposed to the move.
"I struggle to get through a day without crying over the details of my son's death," McLean's mother Carol DeDelley wrote in a victim impact statement. "I don't want to see the visions in my mind, but they are still there. I don't want to be here speaking to the review board. I feel I have to be."
Bruce Martin, the man who drove the bus on the night of the attack, and who only recently returned to regular duties, told the board his only relief is knowing Li is "under lock and key".
"I have some comfort knowing that our citizens, and their children and grandchildren do not have to fear (Li)," Martin wrote in a statement read by his wife.
The board, which reviews cases such as Li's every year, is expected to make a decision by the end of the week.
Li's attack made headlines around the world. After a rest stop in western Manitoba, Li sat next to McLean, a 22-year-old carnival worker heading home to Winnipeg from Edmonton. The two men had never met. McLean was listening to music on his headphones, with his eyes closed.
Suddenly, Li stood up and started stabbing McLean as horrified passengers looked on. He stabbed McLean dozens of times, carving up his body and scattering it around the bus. Part of McLean's heart and his eyes were never found.
As people scrambled to get off the bus and police surrounded it, witnesses reported seeing Li holding McLean's head in the air, taunting officers.
Li was found not criminally responsible for the attack due to untreated schizophrenia, and ordered to stay in the secure wing of the Selkirk centre, subject to annual reviews by the board.
For McLean's family, the attack continues to hurt them.
"I used to enjoy interacting with others through my work and socializing. I don't anymore," DeDelley wrote. "I have been in therapy two to three times a week since Timothy's death to give me the tools to help me cope on a daily basis with the sorrow, heartache and rage I now experience."
