I live in Kearns. I knew the neighborhood wasn't as good as it used to be, but this is just messed up.


http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=3896502

Teenager in critical condition after being attacked with battle ax


A Kearns teenager was attacked with a battle ax. The teenager was mutilated right in his driveway, and the sister of one of the men accused of doing this is devastated.


Destini Augustine talked exclusively with Eyewitness News. She said, "I was thinking about it and asking, 'How could my brother do that?' My mom asked him why he was in jail, and he said he cut up a kid."

Cody Augustine is accused of stabbing 17-year-old Justin Ennis 11 to 12 times. According to police, that was after Augustine's friend, Scott Stapley, hit the teen with a four-bladed medieval battle ax. Lt. Paul Jaroscak, with the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office, says, "Our detectives are saying this could have easily decapitated this young man."

"That makes me sick," Destini Augustine said.

Jaroscak said, "Our detectives described it as something Conan the Barbarian used to ride through the crowd and strike soldiers with."


Investigators say the two suspects sent text messages to Ennis, luring him to his home. Then they attacked him on the street and stabbed him multiple times in his driveway. Bleeding profusely, the young man stumbled into his home, screaming for help.

According to detectives, the attack was motivated by jealousy over a girl.

The probable cause statement adds that Cody Augustine and Stapley confessed to the crime.

"They have done something that could land them in prison for many, many years," Jaroscak said.


When asked if she thought her brother should go to jail, Destini Augustine replied, "Yeah."

She does have a message for Justin Ennis' family. She said, "They're in our prayers and I'm sorry that happened to him. It's just horrible."

Ennis' injuries are horrific. His father tells us it took 300 stitches and 30 staples to close his neck. The teenager is in critical condition. His family believes he will survive

The district attorney is screening charges against the two suspects tonight.

A Kearns teenager was attacked with a battle ax. The teenager was mutilated right in his driveway, and the sister of one of the men accused of doing this is devastated.


Destini Augustine talked exclusively with Eyewitness News. She said, "I was thinking about it and asking, 'How could my brother do that?' My mom asked him why he was in jail, and he said he cut up a kid."

Cody Augustine is accused of stabbing 17-year-old Justin Ennis 11 to 12 times. According to police, that was after Augustine's friend, Scott Stapley, hit the teen with a four-bladed medieval battle ax. Lt. Paul Jaroscak, with the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office, says, "Our detectives are saying this could have easily decapitated this young man."

"That makes me sick," Destini Augustine said.

Jaroscak said, "Our detectives described it as something Conan the Barbarian used to ride through the crowd and strike soldiers with."


Investigators say the two suspects sent text messages to Ennis, luring him to his home. Then they attacked him on the street and stabbed him multiple times in his driveway. Bleeding profusely, the young man stumbled into his home, screaming for help.

According to detectives, the attack was motivated by jealousy over a girl.

The probable cause statement adds that Cody Augustine and Stapley confessed to the crime.

"They have done something that could land them in prison for many, many years," Jaroscak said.


When asked if she thought her brother should go to jail, Destini Augustine replied, "Yeah."

She does have a message for Justin Ennis' family. She said, "They're in our prayers and I'm sorry that happened to him. It's just horrible."

Ennis' injuries are horrific. His father tells us it took 300 stitches and 30 staples to close his neck. The teenager is in critical condition. His family believes he will survive

The district attorney is screening charges against the two suspects tonight.

Looks like some maniac decided to live out their World of Warcraft fantasies. That's truly horrible. Hope the kid gets life for attempted murder. :(

That's sad, and I wonder if that kid's going to pull through. I'm also curious how some kid his hands on a battle ax. You have to respect people who grow up in those kind of environments, and come out good people.

I'm just shaking my head here, thankful I at least have enough intelligence to attempt to write a comment. I hope that guy receives a long sentence, he's basically an adult and should know not to severely injure, even murder, someone in petty jealousy over a girl. Some people in this world.....

That's my opinion but then again, I'm only a year or two younger than that guy....maybe I should leave this to other's of higher intellect.

- W I C K E D

Wow, it's wierd how people can do things like that.

Hm. that reminds me of the man in our town who got shot six times in front of his THREE YEAR OLD DAUGHTER because of a love triangle.

It proves my point: People are stupid.

I am sorry to hear about this stabbing CDRW, and I hope you are safe on your streets.

It may sound slightly mean here, but I am so releved that it wasn't in England this stabbing, it gets old hearng about them here. We had a spate of something like 13 attacks over a 24 hour period last week. It is shocking.

Last week I was walking home from my auntie's when I saw a mam who had been stabbed !! Blood pouring down his face, screaming at this other man who was trying to get him in this car. I was terrified, escpeciallly when the dude turned and started screaming at me who was only on the other side of the road. Was all too glad when they got in the car and drove off.

How the very offensive word did this absolute another offensive word get his hands on yet another offensive word-ing battle axe??????

WTF is wrong with people? All this coz of jealousy over a girl? Some people are seriously messed up.

I really hope this guy is all right. What happened to him was absolutley appalling and it's made me really angry for soem reason. I probably would have laughed if someone had told me that soon I would have to walk the streets in fear of being battleaxed.

I don't understand why anybody would want to do something like that, let alone how they actually did it..

I probably would have laughed if someone had told me that soon I would have to walk the streets in fear of being battleaxed. Lmao, reading that, I would laugh too. I don't know why I laugh, battleaxes are preferable to guns, which seems to have made there way on our streets recently. Guns, knifes, knuckle dusters, machetes, bits of pipe, planks of wood ... you name it, the lads'll use it as a weapon around here. It is violent as.

I was down the cycle track a couple of weeks ago where we all hang out, when this lad called Nassa comes n his car with a gun, aiming it at this other lad, Gaz, saying he's gunna shoot him. Well one of my cosest mates who was at the time seeing Gaz, jumps in front of Nassa with the gun and tells him he'd have to shoot her first. OMG my heart was racing ... I have never bricked it so much in my life. It wasn't until some other lad clubbed him on the back of the head with a big pole that Nassa dropped the gun and left.

And no-one cares about this! That's what gets me,, they make all of this noice about people being stabbed and stuff in London, and a couple of other big cities, but violence around these parts are becomming appauling and no-ones cares.

Bloody hell Heather!! I don't want to live anywhere near you! The thing that really gets me going though is that everyone looks at these incidents and goes 'Oh, that;s just proof that young people are no good these days' but no one seems to remember that the victim is also a young person most of the time. (as in most of the victims are young people, not that most of the time the person is young, but sometimes is a pensioner!) Did it say how old the bastard who did it was in that article? I expect he was a young person too, but I couldn;t find anything that said it.

What's the world coming to? Soon I'm going to have to get a lance to keep in my car, in case of bandits. I'll have to keep my rapier sharp in case of bandits. I should probably add a moat to my house to keep mauraders at bay.....

I like your suggestins of safety protection. And I live on a bit of a rough area anyways ... voted worst place to live in Britain only five minutes drive away. I don't know how they dare, we have some fantastic fautures. did you know, Middlesbroughhas the world's last working transporter bridge, and Roy Chubby Brown came from here, and we have a great big festival every year and we are just great so screw the idiots in London who made this poll. We are great ...

Except the violence. You were saying about all of the thing you would do to make your house safe and stuff, there are people around the estste who have CCTV on theiir house ... and estates where you cannot turn a corner wthout being caught on camera. But yes, people do not try and solve these problems, they just blame us kids and move on. It need sorting out because it is ridiculous.

A girl I used to go to school with brayed an old lady on the bus the other week because she asked her to turn her music off. If I ever see her again, I'm gunna show her what it's like ... the pathetic ***. Sorry, getting off track ... but me saying that, it is weird how violent I can get myself actually. I am not usually a violent person, but you can be out on a night, and there's a big crew of people coming towards you with pipes and knuckle duters and they all want to [ut you in hospital because you are from a different estate (it's like gang wars here, we even have names aswell, we are the TWE), even the lads will hit you, bray you to the floor and leave you thee for the lasses to finish off, I'll get my fight on rather than run away. I will go hacker, I mean seriously, come anywhere near me and I'm gunna rip your eyes out, sort of hacker. And I hate that, but it's either that, or I end up in Intensive Care.

It is possibly to do with the people I hang around with aswell to be honest though. It is only when I go out with that crew, do I end up having to fight, or witness people going to shoot on another etc etc. I don't know why I go with them really.

Oh yeah as much of a pansy as I am, if someone tried to kick my ass I'd try to kick theirs back! Of course, being weedy and not strong it wouldn't actually help as I'd still end up dead, but at least it's better than running away.

I could always try and remember that Tae Kwon Do punch that stops someones heart, I suppose....

Oh yeah as much of a pansy as I am, if someone tried to kick my ass I'd try to kick theirs back! Of course, being weedy and not strong it wouldn't actually help as I'd still end up dead, but at least it's better than running away. Lmao ... bless you. I'm weak when it comes to like, strength and stuff. But when my eyes depend on it, I'm like, you know those sweet looking lasses you get, who are quite small ish frame and look like they wouldn't hurt a fly, but then fight like a beast? I'm one of them. :D I'll nut, punch, stamp ... anything to get em off me.

Remind me never to move to England. That's definitly a different picture than what most Americans have of the place. We've got gang problems here, but for the most part you don't see anything they do unless you're directly involved. It's still fairly safe to walk the streets alone at night, I would stay away from some certian neighborhoods, but for the most part it's still safe. It's in the schools that a lot of the problems happen, which makes me glad that I moved away in junior high and didn't move back until this year.

Remind me never to move to England. That's definitly a different picture than what most Americans have of the place.

Yah, here in America we shoot you- mainly because we are too fat and lazy to hack you apart.

Remind me never to move to England. That's definitly a different picture than what most Americans have of the place. We've got gang problems here, but for the most part you don't see anything they do unless you're directly involved. It's still fairly safe to walk the streets alone at night, I would stay away from some certian neighborhoods, but for the most part it's still safe. It's in the schools that a lot of the problems happen, which makes me glad that I moved away in junior high and didn't move back until this year.
I don't know... there are good places in the US as much as there are good places in Europe.

It's not what country you're from, but it's more of where in the country are you.

Sad to hear the news, CDRW. I hope justice prevails.

I hope justice prevails.

As it's england it depends. If the culprit is a teenager, then he'll get a bit of what he deserves, if he's an adult, probably a smack on the wrist.

That's reassuring. :-P

If CNN.com or another global news page is your homepage, its easy to tell that these types of attacks aren't too uncommon (well, 'uncommon' is a relative term I suppose.)

Just today I saw a teaser headline: "bus rider beheads seatmate."

What kind of messed up world is this?!

How did he even get some kind of blade or axe onto the bus and then get it out without anyone getting suspicious?

He's obviously magic.

Well yes, this world is kind of messed up. But we're here to fix it. Aren't we...?

*Looks for supporters*

How did he even get some kind of blade or axe onto the bus and then get it out without anyone getting suspicious?
I'm assuming he hid it in his coat, because the weapon was a butcher knife. How you behead someone even with a butcher knife escapes me, though. Bleh <shudders>.

I'll help you change the world Risen, depending on how you want to go about it!

But yeah, and the way he just walked to the front of the bus with the guy's head.....

I just want the world to be fair. Let justice guide us, instead of emotions and pride.

Hmmm.... justice needs a good kick up the ass atm though.... Most people seem to have forgotten what it is... Including the ones who are meant to serve it out, and uphold it....

I KNOW!

God, there's just too mmany people in too high positions. They tend to forget why they're even up there.

This is terrible and strange. I've heard of crazier things, but not many. I hope the kids go to prison and learn to be better people, if at all possible. That is the point of prison right? Rehabilitation? A second chance?

Anyway, in America gangs are kind of below the surface, and normals can get away if they know what to say. It's all about knowledge. If some scary chick with all sorts of gang colors on her asks you 'Wear you from?', you tell her 'no where' or she'll get a possy together and break a few bones. I don't live in a gang town, but it's a pretty big city and we have our gang problems, but mostly it's considered one of the best places to live in America, I believe in the past it made top 10 on a list in some magazine.

40-year-old suspect held in gruesome Manitoba bus killing
Passenger decapitated, witnesses say; story contains graphic details


A 40-year-old man is in custody in Manitoba after a young man was stabbed — and, witnesses said, decapitated — aboard a Greyhound bus travelling through the province overnight.

Police officers spent Thursday examining a Greyhound bus where a passenger was reportedly stabbed and decapitated late Wednesday.Police officers spent Thursday examining a Greyhound bus where a passenger was reportedly stabbed and decapitated late Wednesday. (CBC)The RCMP would not confirm the reports of beheading, saying only that a stabbing took place around 8:30 p.m. CT on an eastbound Greyhound bus on the Trans-Canada Highway about 20 kilometres west of Portage la Prairie.

The suspect, believed to be from outside Manitoba, was arrested early Thursday morning after a standoff lasting several hours and remains in RCMP custody .

Charges have not yet been laid, and the suspect has not yet been interviewed, said RCMP spokesman Staff Sgt. Steve Colwell, adding that he could release no further information on the investigation.

The RCMP declined to identify either the suspect or the victim.

Thirty-seven people were aboard the bus en route to Winnipeg from Edmonton.

Colwell said the "brave" behaviour of the passengers and driver probably prevented anyone else from being hurt.

"It's not something that happens regularly on a bus," he said. "You're sitting there enjoying your trip and then all of a sudden somebody gets stabbed. I imagine it would be pretty traumatic … the way they acted was extraordinary."
Victim 'just a kid': witness

Passenger Cody Olmstead, 21, told CBC News he had smoked a cigarette earlier in the trip with the victim, whom he described as a man in his late teens or early 20s. The victim got on the bus in Edmonton, he said.

"I never took the time to know him, but he seemed to be OK, right, just a kid," said Olmstead, a Nova Scotia man who had been taking the bus from Alberta to Montreal.

"He just said he was going to Winnipeg … going home, that's where he was from."

Garnet Caton said he heard a 'blood-curdling scream' and turned around to see a man repeatedly stabbing the passenger sitting next to him.Garnet Caton said he heard a 'blood-curdling scream' and turned around to see a man repeatedly stabbing the passenger sitting next to him. (CBC)Garnet Caton, who was sitting in the seat in front of the victim, said he saw the attacker stab his seatmate, a young man sleeping with his headphones on.

Caton said he heard a "blood-curdling scream" and turned around to see the attacker holding a large "Rambo" hunting knife above the victim, "continually stabbing him in the chest area."

"He must have stabbed him 50 times or 60 times," said Caton.

"Like, just everywhere, arms, legs, neck, chest, guts, wherever he could swing it, he got it," said Olmstead.

"It looked kind of like a scuffle or an argument, you know, and then somebody's, like, 'Knife! Knife! Run!' so I was running up the alleyway, slapping people telling them to get going, move, get off the bus. I got pushed over, some lady got pushed over, I was just making sure everybody was OK, and we all got off the bus," said Olmstead

As panicked passengers fled the bus, "the attacker was over top of the victim … continually cutting him. I think the victim was gone at that point," Caton said.
Trio tried to check on victim

Caton, the driver and a trucker who had stopped at the scene later boarded the vehicle to see if the victim was still alive.

"When we came back on the bus, it was visible at the end of the bus he was cutting the guy's head off and pretty much gutting him up," said Caton.

The attacker ran at them, Caton said, and they ran out of the bus, holding the door shut as he tried to slash at the trio.

When the attacker tried to drive the bus away, the driver disabled the vehicle, Caton said.

"While we were watching the door, he calmly walks up to the front with the head in his hand and the knife and just calmly stares at us and drops the head right in front of us," said Caton.

"They did an awesome thing, holding him in there, because if not, what would have happened?" said Olmstead.

RCMP crisis negotiators communicated with the suspect for several hours while he was on the bus. Around 1:30 a.m., he attempted to jump from a bus window and was subdued and arrested, RCMP said.
Acted 'like he was a robot'

Caton described the attacker as surprisingly calm. "It was like he was at the beach or something. There was no rage in him. He wasn't swearing or cursing or anything. It was just like he was a robot or something."

The suspect remained on the bus for several hours and was arrested around 1:30 a.m., RCMP said.The suspect remained on the bus for several hours and was arrested around 1:30 a.m., RCMP said. (John Woods/Canadian Press)Police cruisers arrived about 10 minutes after the attack began, he estimated, and officers began directing passengers to school buses to take them to a hotel in Brandon.

"While we were waiting on the side of the road, [the attacker] was taunting the police with the head in his hand," said Caton.

Caton described the attacker as appearing "totally normal" earlier in the journey, even chatting with a young woman as he smoked a cigarette during a break.

But when he got back on the bus, he moved his belongings from the front to a seat beside the victim in the back and about 20 minutes later began attacking the man, said Caton. "He didn't say anything to the victim at all," said Caton.
Counsellors, chaplains aid passengers

A six-year-old and other children were among the passengers who saw the horrific incident unfold, said Caton.

"It was pretty traumatic," he said, adding that some passengers said they have been unable to sleep or eat since it happened.

"It's disturbing," Olmstead agreed, adding that images of the previous night haunted him when he tried to fall asleep early Thursday morning. "I closed my eyes and I seen him in the window there, just like a madman."

Bev Cumming, head of acute care services for the Brandon Regional Health Authority, said chaplains and psychiatric nurses have been working with dozens of passengers on the bus since they arrived in Brandon.
Bus violence

Recent violent incidents that have occurred on Greyhound buses in Canada:

* Dec. 24, 2007: A 27-year-old man is stabbed after an argument with another passenger on a bus near Tweed, Ont.
* Feb. 16, 2007: A group of people in their 20s attack and beat the driver of a bus in Lloydminster, Alta.
* Dec. 23, 2000: A man attempts to take control of a bus near Thunder Bay, Ont. Thirty-two passengers are injured when the bus lands on its side in a ditch. One woman later dies of her injuries.
* March, 2000. A pregnant woman is attacked by a man on a bus in London, Ont. The woman suffered injuries to her arms.

"When you see something as horrifying as that, the brain locks on to those images. It's very difficult to release those images," Cumming said.

"The assistance that people will get will be along the lines of coping in the immediate phase, learning what to do to reduce the profound effect this experience will have."

Tim Sen, president of Trauma Management Group, which offers counselling and post-traumatic support in Ontario, said it will take time for bus passengers to come to terms with what they've seen.

"They will experience very, very vivid flashbacks of that occurrence. Those will usually dissipate over a period of time, but right now it's going to be very vivid [as] they're still dealing with the shock and processing this horrific event," he said.

"There's not a right or wrong way to go through this. Some people will still be in shock and being very flat in presentation, like nothing's happened. Other people may not get out of bed and not want to move for a while, or be having what we call very acute [responses], so they'll be maybe crying and not wanting to calm down at all. Everybody's going to go through this very difficult journey in a very different way."

For children on the bus, Sen said, the response will depend on the age and maturity of the child. Generally, the key message caregivers should try to convey is that the situation is over and the child is now safe.

If intense feelings and emotions and symptoms such as flashbacks don't subside within a few months, Sen said, the passengers should consider seeking professional help.
Investigation is in 'full motion': minister

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day commented on the killing, saying that like most Canadians, he was horrified to hear witness accounts of the homicide.

"The horrific nature of it is probably one of a kind in Canadian history," he told reporters late Thursday morning in Lévis, Que.

The minister said he didn't want to say anything that would compromise the investigation, but "I can assure people that everything is in full motion and momentum to getting to the bottom of this incident."

Questioned about whether weapons regulations should be put into place for buses, Day said it would be premature to look at such precautionary measures but added that the legal process will be followed as "aggressively as possible."

The union that represents Greyhound drivers says the company must move to improve its security measures.

"All we can do is physically observe the individual's behaviour, but obviously the item of destruction got on the bus somehow, and if it was visible to any driver, he would not have boarded the bus just for that simple reason," said Jim Higgs, a spokesman for the Amalgamated Transit Union.

"There has to be some reactive measures taken, whether it be metal screening, or whether we design differently our loading policies at various depots [so] you have to funnel down a chute as your only way onto the bus…. At major terminals, I really believe now we have to do something — not only that, we have to be investigating carry-on luggage and certain things like that."

Greyhound spokeswoman Abby Wambaugh said the company is examining security on buses.

"We are working with Transport Canada to review inter-city bus security," she said.

"Due to the rural nature of our network, airport-type security is not practical for bus travel. It's just a completely different system."

The local news station reported that the man calmly stabbed the victim 40 or 50 times and then decapitated him. Eyewitnesses interviewed on camera said the victim was just sitting with his eyes closed, listening to music on a personal music player, before the attack.

Several children were on the bus as well and witnessed the murder. The passengers evacuated the bus amd blocked the doors to keep the man from escaping until the police arrived.

Local clergy arrived to begin counselling the distraught passengers.

Listening to the news and reading the reports just make it seem so mundane.
This was on the TransCanada Hwy.
In 14 hours or less it would have pulled into Marathon and been sitting about 15 minutes walk from my house.
If I was going to the next town over I could have been on that very bus.
There is really no way to protect people from horrors like this man.
You wait at the highway and can flag down any greyhound bus. They stop pick you up and go along their merry way.
So far no bus will leave you since the wild life (animal) is not friendly and they don't want to leave someone who may be dead by the next bus time.
But what if anything can be done?
You cannot force someone to take meds for mental problems since that is against their human rights to live life as they want.
You cannot even arrest someone until they have done something even if they threaten you or others.
How do you keep your loved ones safe when all the power is with the wrong doer.
Dom could have been on that bus coming from Vancouver if he took the plane to there and wanted a cheap way to get home across country.
One MP in opposition apparently is talking registering knives.
That is one heck of a knee jerk reaction.
The media sensationalizes the act the politicians listen to the scared people and they come up with some stupid ideas that don't have a snowballs hope in hades of solving anything.
Clergy says pray, Politicians say throw more money into the problem.
some say ban the weapon,
bad guy says do what you want I will still have a way to get the job done.

That's insane. I hope Justin makes it out of this OK.

I mean, how many people can honestly say they've been attacked by a battle axe? That'll be one helluva conversation peace.

...why do my attempts to look at the bright side of things always make me look like a douche?

The only battleaxe I was ever attacked by was my 8th grade English teacher, Mrs. Parslow. Frankly she was the worst English teacher I have ever encountered, and was more interested in keeping order than in educating.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled insane news story.

Remind me never to move to England. That's definitly a different picture than what most Americans have of the place. We've got gang problems here, but for the most part you don't see anything they do unless you're directly involved. It's still fairly safe to walk the streets alone at night, I would stay away from some certian neighborhoods, but for the most part it's still safe. It's in the schools that a lot of the problems happen, which makes me glad that I moved away in junior high and didn't move back until this year.
Don't get me wrong, I am not saying all of England is like this, I live in a slummy council estate in a slummy area ... which I guess makes things worse really. And I am directly involved ... people don't often go around hurting random people, it's like fights with other people involved. I've painted such a horrible picture of this country haven't I?

As for getting a knife on the bus.
No problem.
People carry them all the time.
Not usually rambo type but large hunting knives, belt knives.
Put on your jeans and the knife is on the belt.
Don has to take a knife to work. It is part of his equipment.
During hunting season I carry a knife in my pocket.
That man must have had a jacket on so it wasn't in sight but even if it was not too many people would take a 2nd glance.
Away from the cities Canadians think differently than other people.
You have to be prepared for things and we pretty much live and let live.
I guess we will be changing our attitudes in the future.

Heather: No. I was mostly joking. We've got places that bad here in the U.S. I'm just lucky enough to live in a relativly good area. Its kind of slummy, but better than other states. I know that in certian neighborhoods in California, just going in and being white will automatically get you killed.

Lessa:

Holy Cow!

Heather: No. I was mostly joking. We've got places that bad here in the U.S. I'm just lucky enough to live in a relativly good area. Its kind of slummy, but better than other states. I know that in certian neighborhoods in California, just going in and being white will automatically get you killed.

Owww ... we have an area near the town like that were a lot of European Africans live (is that the correct term to use :S) and there is a lot of gang war between the whites and blacks.

And as for getting a knife on a bus, that;s easy peasy. When we went skiing, a 13 year old managed to get a knife through customs. Not just a knife, no, a 8 inch blade machete !!

....eeek. I really hope the teenager recovers. I mean, that's strange, attacking someone with a battle axe. That's a new one for today.

Yeah with a knife it's easy, I just assumed he'd used something like an axe or something...

Heather I don't think you've painted a bad picture of England. I think like any country there are good parts and bad parts, and the bad ones are usually the ones you hear about. Although I live in a bad part that no one ever hears about..