Relatives of U.S. Men's Volleyball Coach Stabbed in Beijing

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Phantom

Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2008 6:49 am

Relatives of U.S. Men's Volleyball Coach Stabbed in Beijing

Relatives of U.S. Men's Volleyball Coach Stabbed in Beijing, 1 Dead

BEIJING — A knife-wielding Chinese man attacked two relatives of a coach for the U.S. Olympic men's volleyball team at a tourist site in Beijing, killing one and injuring the other on the first day of the Olympics on Saturday, team officials and state media said.

The man then committed suicide by throwing himself from the second story of the site, the 13th century Drum Tower just five miles from the main Olympics site.

The brutal attack shortly after midday was all the more shocking because of the rarity of violent crime against foreigners in tightly controlled China, which has ramped up security measures even more for the Olympics.

The stabbing came only hours after what by many accounts was the most spectacular opening ceremony in Olympic history and it has already dampened some of the enthusiasm.

"They are deeply saddened and shocked," Darryl Seibel, a spokesman for the U.S. Olympic Committee, said of the volleyball team.

The U.S. Olympic Committee said in a statement that two family members of a coach for the men's indoor volleyball team were stabbed at the Drum Tower "during an attack by what local law enforcement authorities have indicated was a lone assailant."

One of the family members was killed and the other was seriously injured, it said, without giving details.

The official Xinhua News Agency identified the attacker as Tang Yongming, 47, from the eastern city of Hangzhou. It said Tang attacked the two Americans and their Chinese tour guide, who was also injured, at 12:20 p.m. on the second level of the ancient tower, then leapt to his death immediately afterward. The second level of the tower is about 130 feet high.

Seibel said the two Americans who were attacked were not wearing anything that would have identified them as Americans or part of the U.S. team. He could not name the coach.

"They were not wearing apparel or anything that would have specifically identified them as being members of our delegation" or as Americans, he told The Associated Press.

He said it is "too early to say" whether the U.S. delegation or athletes will require additional security.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Richard Buangan said it was aware of an incident involving two Americans and was working with Chinese authorities to find out more. He said U.S. officials were in contact with relatives of the two Americans who are in Beijing.

"Out of respect for the families involved, we can't say more than that," Don Q. Washington, another embassy spokesman, told reporters.

Police blocked off streets leading to the Drum Tower immediately after the attack and cordoned off the area with yellow police tape. Security officers were examining the scene on the tower and below.

Attacks on foreigners in China are extremely rare. A Canadian model was murdered last month in Shanghai, but police said that was because she stumbled onto a burglary.

In March, a screaming, bomb-strapped hostage-taker who commandeered a bus with 10 Australians aboard in the popular tourist city of Xi'an was shot to death by a police sniper.

Shanghai and Beijing are still safer than most foreign cities of their size. Punishments for crimes against foreigners are heavier than for crimes against Chinese, and police-linked neighborhood watch groups are highly vigilant. Chinese are not allowed to own guns.

Even so, the U.S. government now warns Americans against muggings, beatings and even carjackings, especially in the nightlife and shopping districts of large cities.

Built in the 13th century, the Drum Tower is one of the few ancient structures still in Beijing, and was used to tell time in imperial China for the city, using drummers who pounded their instruments to mark the hours. It is located on an important central axis of the city, to the north of the Forbidden City, the former home of the emperor.

The White House saidPresident Bush, who is in Beijing for the opening days of the games, was informed of the incident, and his heart goes out to the families of the victims. It said the administration and the Beijing U.S. embassy have offered those families any assistance they need. Also, U.S. officials have been speaking to Chinese authorities about the incident.

International Olympic Committee spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau said in a statement that the committee had received reports of the attack and was in contact with Beijing Games organizers "to find out full details, and are ready to provide whatever assistance we can."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,400786,00.html

Joined: 05 Jun 2006
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Ber

Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2008 8:01 am

What the hell is wrong with people?! Evil or Very Mad

The olympics are a time for everyone to get together for some healthy compeition and some sort of world unity.

Joined: 06 Apr 2006
Posts: 1649

Phantom

Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2008 8:07 am

Ber wrote:

What the hell is wrong with people?! Evil or Very Mad

The olympics are a time for everyone to get together for some healthy compeition and some sort of world unity.

But than there are some people who use such an event as the Olympics to make a statement for they know it will get worldwide coverage.

Joined: 05 Jun 2006
Posts: 3332
Location: My only friend, the end

Ber

Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2008 8:27 am

I know, it just really makes my heart ache though. I don't get wanting to hurt people.

Joined: 06 Apr 2006
Posts: 1649

prolific

Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2008 1:20 pm

USA volleyball beats Japan, but tragedy casts pall

Published - Aug 09 2008 12:38PM EDT | AP
By ANNE M. PETERSON - AP Sports Writer

Following an emotional victory over Japan, U.S. women's indoor volleyball player Logan Tom burst into tears.

The team heard earlier Saturday that the father of former Olympic team member Elisabeth Bachman McCutcheon was killed by a knife-wielding man at a popular tourist site in Beijing. Her mother-in-law was seriously injured.

"God, we all love Wiz," Tom said, referring to her former teammate by her nickname. "It's hard to put it in words. That's not something that's supposed to happen."

The tragedy hung over the game, in which the Americans defeated Japan 3-1 (25-20, 20-25, 25-19, 25-21), in the first match of preliminary play at the Capital Indoor Stadium.

Joined: 24 Mar 2006
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Location: Living happily in my "clueless" little world.

yankee-in-france

Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2008 4:40 pm

Phantom wrote:

But than there are some people who use such an event as the Olympics to make a statement for they know it will get worldwide coverage.

Yes, Phantom, but what was his statement. What was his cause? Supposedly, violence is a rarity in China. Why? Was it random or wasn't it?

Off topic for sure, but how and why are Olympics allowed to be held in non-Democratic countries? In the spirit of the Olympics and in the 21st century, why allow a country whose citizens have but few rights and little freedom to host such an event?

YIF

Joined: 30 Mar 2006
Posts: 6563
Location: France

dithers

Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2008 4:48 pm

This fellow who was killed wasn't just any regular schmoe. He was the CEO of a huge garden center chain in Minneapolis - Bachman's. The stores have been around as long as I can remember.

To tell the truth, I would have thought one would be safer in China -especially during the Olympics - than in any city in America.

I don't know the answer YIF as to why a communist country can hold the Olympics but I do recall GWB answered when being pushed to boycott them that it was about the sports and competition and not about politics.

That being said, I can recall many people saying over the past several years (mostly in regards to the war in Iraq) that not all countries were ready for or able to handle democracy - so guess it's kind of hypocrital to try and assign the Olympics based on that criteria.

Pretty in Blonde

Joined: 17 Apr 2006
Posts: 3468

Phantom

Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2008 7:35 pm

yankee-in-france wrote:

Yes, Phantom, but what was his statement. What was his cause? Supposedly, violence is a rarity in China. Why? Was it random or wasn't it?

With China being such a closed society, maybe the police know why, but just ain't telling.

Terrorist group have told Muslims in China to avoid taking trains, planes and buses. Supposedly they are planning attacks during the Olympics.

Joined: 05 Jun 2006
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Eliza

Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2008 8:12 pm

Phantom wrote:

Of course they are. Twisted Evil

Joined: 21 Feb 2008
Posts: 1273
Location: Deep in the hills with my Bible, rifle, and pony.

Phantom

Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2008 8:21 pm

Eliza wrote:

Of course they are. Twisted Evil

Here's the story,

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25970449/

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olympic

Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2008 10:46 pm

i had a topic a few days ago, hoping to generate some discussion on the olympics....here are my comments;

http://www.refugeesunleashed.net/viewtopic.php?t=15824

the countries obsession over the olympic 2008 was/is obsessive... Sad

Joined: 18 Dec 2006
Posts: 1632

yankee-in-france

Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2008 9:48 am

dithers wrote:

I think that I have probably been one of those people, Dithers, that said that you cannot export democracy. I might have even said that democracy may not be for everyone. Yes, I think that you are right that politics has no place in the Olympian tradition.

YIF

Joined: 30 Mar 2006
Posts: 6563
Location: France

olympic

Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 1:30 am

Condition of American in knifing attack improves

BEJING (AP)—The condition of the American mother of a former Olympian who was stabbed on the opening day of Olympics competition was improving Monday, a spokesman for the U.S. Olympics Committee told the AP.

USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said Barbara Bachman’s condition has been upgraded from critical to serious but stable.

Mrs. Bachman was with her husband, Todd Bachman, both 62, when they were attacked by a Chinese man at an ancient monument in the heart of the Chinese capital on Saturday.

Todd Bachman was killed in the attack. The couple, from Lakeville, Minnesota, are parents of 2004 volleyball Olympian Elisabeth “Wiz” Bachman and in-laws of U.S. men’s volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon.

Elisabeth Bachman was with her parents at the time of the attack, but uninjured. Their Chinese tour guide was injured, but Beijing authorities have declined to release any details about her condition.

Shortly after the attack, which took place at midday, the assailant, Tang Yongming, 47, leapt to his death from a 130-foot high balcony on the Drum Tower, just five miles from the main Olympics site, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Dale Bachman, Todd’s second cousin, told a news conference in Minneapolis that Todd Bachman was walking a few steps behind his wife and daughter at the Drum Tower when Barbara Bachman heard the commotion and turned to help her husband.

“That’s when she was attacked,” Dale Bachman said Saturday. “To me, that was a strong indication of her love. She is a fabulous person.”

The assault came only hours after China’s jubilant opening ceremony of the Summer Games and stunned the athletic community and embarrassed Chinese officials hosting President Bush.

Seibel said the Bachman family and the U.S. Olympics Committee members were “very, very, very happy to report her condition is upgraded.” He said family members, including two daughters who flew in from their home in Minneapolis, were at the hospital with her.

“They’re not at the point where they want to discuss the specific nature of the injuries,” Seibel said of the Bachman family.

AP reporters at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, also called Beijing Xiehe Yiyuan, were not allowed on the eighth floor of the facility, a section of the hospital that has been designated for the Olympics.

The committee said Sunday that Mrs. Bachman suffered multiple lacerations and stab wounds. She underwent eight hours of surgery and initially was in life-threatening, critical condition.

McCutcheon sat out the U.S. men’s volleyball team’s opening game against Venezuela on Sunday—a match that the Americans won 3-2—to be with his wife at the hospital.

Police investigating the stabbing death have said the suspect was distraught over family problems. Chinese authorities unsettled by the attack during the Beijing Olympics tightened security at tourist spots around the city.

Wang Wei, vice president of the Beijing Olympic organizing committee, said Sunday that security in and around Olympic venues was already sufficient but would be increased at scenic spots in the capital.

He said Chinese investigators and U.S. Embassy officials believe Saturday’s attack was “an isolated incident” and suggested such random acts are difficult to prevent. There was no indication the assailant knew his victims had any connection to the games, according to Olympic and Chinese authorities.

Beijing is a safe city, but unfortunately we are not immune to violent acts,” Wang told reporters.

Bush, in the Chinese capital to attend some Olympic events and meet with Chinese leaders, thanked President Hu Jintao on Sunday for his government’s handling of the attack.

“Your government has been very attentive, very sympathetic, and I appreciate that a lot,” Bush said.

Hu said his government took the incident “very seriously” and pledged to keep Washington apprised of the investigation.

Violent crime against foreigners is rare in tightly controlled China, and the assault occurred despite major security measures that have blanketed the capital city during the Olympics. A 100,000-strong security force plus countless volunteers have been deployed to protect against any trouble.

Police said Tang went through his second divorce in 2006 and grew increasingly despondent when his 21-year-old son started getting into trouble, Xinhua reported. The son was detained in May 2007 on suspicion of fraud, then received a suspended prison sentence in March this year for theft.

Joined: 18 Dec 2006
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olympic

Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2008 11:39 pm

China's Censorship Sucks

You gotta have balls of steel to be a journalist in China.

According to a new report, several Chinese reporters covering the stabbing death of a U.S. volleyball coach's father-n-law had their notebooks and at least one tape recorder confiscated after a news conference held by Team U.S.A. Volleyball. The players had been discussing the impact of the murder on the team.

Government confiscation of notebooks and equipment is a common occurrence for Chinese journalists covering protests or other 'undesirable activities', but it was supposedly the first time this has happened at an Olympic venue.

Also, the Chinese appear so intent on painting nothing but rosy pictures around the Games. The word Olympics is not uttered anywhere in the local coverage of the U.S. volleyball coach's murdered father-in-law.

Reports center on the death of "an American tourist" without any mention that the 'tourist' was in Beijing for the Olympics.

We give thanks every day that we have the freedoms that we do in our country.

Joined: 18 Dec 2006
Posts: 1632

olympic

Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 8:43 pm

Experts suggest attack not so random

August 14, 2008

BEIJING – The ancient Drum Tower, or Gulou, rises majestically from a gray sea of crumbling brick homes and meandering alleys in central Beijing. It was built in the 13th century and sits on the sacred north-south axis of the city, or dragon line. Giant drums were once sounded from the 153-foot-tall red and green tower so residents could tell time.
Todd Bachman and his tour group probably learned this from their English-speaking guide Saturday afternoon shortly before a Chinese man fatally stabbedhim.

Bachman's wife, Barbara, also was stabbed when, family members said, she went to her husband's aid. Barbara Bachman remains in a Beijing hospital, in serious but stable condition following eight hours of surgery.

The assailant, identified as Tang Yongming of Hangzhou, is dead. He leapt from the second level of the Drum Tower, about 13 stories up.
The past few days have been a blur for U.S. men's volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon and his wife, Elisabeth, whose parents are Todd and Barbara Bachman. The U.S. men have played and won their first two Olympic matches without McCutcheon on the bench, and there is some question if he will return at all before the Games end. There is a funeral to plan in Minnesota, and Barbara Bachman must be transported home.

But in the swirl of grief and shock enveloping McCutcheon and the entire U.S. Olympic delegation in Beijing, one question hangs in the air like the humidity that bakes the city in the summer: Why?

The U.S. Embassy in Beijing issued a statement saying Tang's attack “appears to be an isolated act” and “we have no reason to believe the assailant targeted the victims as American citizens.” It issued no travel alert for Beijing.

Wang Zhifa, deputy director of China's National Tourism Administration, cited Beijing's relatively low crime rate and told journalists, “The attack was an isolated and incidental criminal case.”

McCutcheon, speaking to reporters for the first time Tuesday, said: “Random acts of violence are random acts of violence. There's no indication here of any premeditation or anything. It seems, just unfortunately, a case of the wrong place at the wrong time. Certainly in our opinion that is the way it appears to be.”

Yet some China experts are cautioning that, while Tang's attack may have been triggered by mental illness or deep depression, killing a foreigner at the Drum Tower may not be quite as random as Chinese and American authorities are portraying it.

“Drum Tower, suicide, knife, foreigners,” said Susan Brownell, a Fulbright senior researcher in Beijing who wrote a book about the meaning of the Olympics to China. “There's definitely some symbolism there. What it meant to him in his own mind is a little hard to figure out. But you've got a failure in life who maybe is trying to redeem himself with what he perceives as the noble act of killing a foreigner, of protecting China.”

The Bachmans were not wearing anything that would identify them as Americans other than perhaps a USA Volleyball pin, U.S. Olympic Committee officials said. But in a city of 17.4 million people, nearly all of them Chinese, Westerners are easy to identify, and one place they are likely to be found is the Drum Tower.

“I think it's a minority but I think it exists,” Brownell said of anti-foreigner sentiment in China. “It's a product of all the rhetoric of China's humiliation at the hands of the West. There is a deep-seated xenophobia that has been an integral part of China for centuries, to close down and shut off to the rest of the world. It's still there today, to a certain extent.”

The Drum Tower was renamed the Tower of Realizing Shamefulness in 1924, serving as a museum devoted to invasions and occupations by foreign nations. It once served as a watch tower on the northern edge of the city, able to alert residents of unwelcome visitors. It has since been converted to a tourist attraction.

There is also the notion of suicide carrying a different meaning in China than in the West, as an act of protest. The popular annual Dragon Boat festival commemorates the death of Qu Yuan, a poet from 300 B.C. who drowned himself as a final, heroic act of defiance against a repressive government.

Locals speak of the increasing number of people from the countryside who move to Beijing in search of a better life and, if they don't find it, quickly become disillusioned. A 2004 report by the Beijing Suicide Research and Prevention Center named suicide as the fifth leading cause of death in China and No. 1 among people between the ages of 15 and 34.

Chinese authorities said Tang was a troubled 47-year-old man from the eastern province of Zhejiang. He reportedly had lost his job at a factory in Hangzhou, had gone through a divorce and was living in a rented room in Beijing.

“It happens all the time,” said a European language teacher who has lived in Beijing for a decade and who declined to give his name. “Someone loses everything. They lose their job, they get divorced, they kill themselves. It happens so often here that no one notices anymore.

“But if a foreigner gets killed, it's different.”

Few details have surfaced in the days after the attack. Authorities continue to insist it was a random, isolated attack, but they also admit it is still “under investigation.”

The plaza behind the Drum Tower has returned to normal, with families playing badminton and shirtless men playing cards in the sultry evenings. The Drum Tower remains locked, though. A small, yellow sign above the ticket window says “Temporarily Closed” in English and Mandarin.

Xinhua, China's state-run news service, first reported the attack on its Web site. Beijing newspapers and television stations have carried little, if any, mention of the story.

“They are worried you'll have copycats,” said an official from a Chinese governmental agency, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing his job. “You have how many people who are destitute and disenfranchised in a city this large? (Publicizing the incident) might empower someone to do it again.

“And if it happens again, you will have a mass exodus to the airport by foreigners.”

Many family members of U.S. volleyball players were scheduled to arrive this week, in time to see the last few games of pool play and the ensuing medal round. All are still expected to make the trip. The USOC, taking its lead from the embassy, has issued no additional safety precautions.

“There was a point where I didn't want them to come,” said U.S. volleyball team member David Lee, a Granite Hills High alum whose girlfriend, parents and older brother flew in yesterday. “But they really wanted to come. They said, 'We're not going to miss this.' They said, 'This could happen anywhere. It could happen in San Diego.'

“But I had to make sure that, in my mind, there was no harm that could come to them.”

Joined: 18 Dec 2006
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olympic

Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 9:44 pm

Wife of American killed in China back in Minn

ROCHESTER, Minn. - One week after Barbara Bachman's husband was killed in a random knife attack in China that also hospitalized her with life-threatening injuries, she is back in her home state of Minnesota to continue her recovery.

Bachman arrived at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester late Friday morning, where she is listed in fair condition and hospital officials said she was alert, talking and had good memory function.

Bachman was stabbed in the abdomen at a popular Beijing tourist attraction last Saturday. Her husband, Todd Bachman, died at the scene.

The assailant, Tang Yongming was identified by police as a distraught unemployed former factory worker. Yongming killed himself by jumping off the upper floor of the 13th-century Drum Tower, one of several stops scheduled as part of a group tour of the city in which the Bachmans were participating.

Avid volleyball fans, the Bachmans, from Lakeville, and traveled to China for the Olympics. Their daughter, Elisabeth "Wiz" Bachman McCutcheon, is a former U.S. Olympic volleyball player married to Hugh McCutcheon, who coaches the U.S. men's team.

Elisabeth was with her parents at the time of the attack, but was unharmed. Hugh McCutcheon missed his team's first four games at the Olympics while tending to his family, but returned to the sidelines for a game against China.

After undergoing eight hours of surgery at a Beijing hospital, Barbara Bachman was airlifted back to Minnesota with her three daughters.

A statement issued by the Mayo Clinic said Barbara Bachman received excellent care while in China. She will continue postoperative recovery at Mayo and begin a rehabilitation program "in the near future," the statement read.

Barbara Bachman of Lakeville, Minn. mother of 2004 volleyball Olympian Elisabeth 'Wiz' Bachman and mother-in-law...

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