A Bachman Is the Murder Victim
Bachman's CEO killed, wife injured in Beijing attack
By Minneapolis Star Tribune Staff and wire reports
August 9, 2008
A Minnesota business executive was killed and his wife critically wounded in a knife attack at a popular tourist site in downtown Beijing Saturday afternoon.
Todd Bachman, 62, the CEO of Bachman's garden centers, died and Barbara Bachman, also 62, was hospitalized in the intensive care unit at Peking Union Medical College Hospital with life-threatening injuries, after an apparently deranged man attacked them and their Chinese guide, who was also wounded.
The attacker then jumped to his death from the second story of the Drum Tower, an ancient structure in the heart of Beijing which was used to tell time in the Imperial era.
The Bachmans, of Farmington, were in China for the Olympics and were visiting the drum tower with their daughter, Elisabeth, a former Olympic volleyball player who is married to current U.S. Men's volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon.
The dramatic killing cast a shadow over the first full day of Olympic competition. The attack occurred despite an overwhelming security presence in the city, and marred the Chinese government's efforts to showcase the country as open and welcoming to foreigners.
Company officials scheduled a 4 p.m. press conference at Bachman's headquarters on S. Lyndale Avenue in Minneapolis.
Todd Bachman was the fourth-generation family member to head the 123-year-old business, and has worked at the company since 1968. He and his cousins in senior management oversee the company's 1,300 employees at 29 locations throughout the Twin Cities area. The company, a Twin Cities institution, began in 1885 as a vegetable farm in south Minneapolis and now includes full-service floral, gift and garden and landscape centers.
Bachman's also supplies poinsettias for the White House Christmas display each December, tradition began in 1984 when the company donated a display to the White House. Then-first lady Nancy Reagan enjoyed the arrangement so much that the annual deliveries became a mainstay.
Volleyball team in shock
The women's team was told of the attack around 5 p.m. Saturday at a team meeting, just five hours before its opening game against Japan. Many of the players who knew Bachman from previous national teams broke into tears.
"They were the sweetest family ever," the delegation member said. "They are a really Christian family. There's not one person who has ever met them who has a negative thing to say about them. They're a great family."
"They follow USA volleyball," the person with the team said. "They would leave little messages for the players. The whole reason they were here is because their life is USA volleyball."
Chinese officials did not speculate on the reasons behind the attack, which occurred around 12:20 p.m. in an area teeming with tourists.
Shopkeepers and others in the area who might have witnessed the attack declined comment, though one woman said "there was a lot of blood," which police quickly cleaned up.
Beijing officials identified the attacker as Tang Yongming, a 47-year-old man from the eastern city of Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, citing an identification card found on his body.
Clark Randt, the U.S. ambassador to China, visited Bachman in intensive care, but declined to comment on the attack. A source said she had undergone surgery.
President Bush, who is in Beijing to attend the Olympic Games, was informed of the attack, the White House said. "Laura and I were ...saddened by the attack on an American family and their Chinese tour guide today in Beijing. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families.
"And the United States government has offered to provide any assistance the family needs," Bush said in a statement tonight to reporters traveling with him.
A safe city
Although Beijing is a city of 17 million, its streets are generally safe and few residents fear walking alone even in the middle of the night. It is illegal for private Chinese citizens to own guns.
Still, there are regular reports of violent incidents throughout the country by people who lash out in frustration over government corruption or injustice. For example, a man who was angry over a rough police interrogation in Shanghai recently walked into the station and stabbed and killed six police officers and wounded four others.
Attacks against tourists are rare, but the U.S. embassy has warned they are on the rise. A reporter for New Zealand television covering the Games was returning to his hotel room Friday night when he was attacked and slightly injured by a young man wielding a broken chair, Kyodo News reported.
Last March, a Chinese man with a bomb strapped to his body took 10 Australians hostage on a bus in the tourist city of Xi'an. Police shot and killed him. No tourists were harmed.
Saturday's attack rattled Chinese officials, who had made safety the No. 1 priority of hosting the Games. Chinese President Hu Jintao has said on several occasions that a secure Olympics is essential for the state's image.
The government has deployed more than 100,000 police, soldiers and others around the capital and has instituted bag checks at all subway and train stations, as well as at many high-traffic tourist points around the city.
A manager of a local tour company said officials at the Drum Tower had not required visitors to go through a security check. The manager, Liu Jin of San Hai Travel Co., said she was unsure when the Drum Tower would reopen to tourists and whether security checks would be in place.
A couple hours after the attack, it was hard to imagine anything had happened at the Drum Tower, an imposing example of imperial Chinese architecture. The gates were closed and nearby residents said pools of blood had been cleaned up efficiently by an army of police and others.
Per Jorgensen, 62, who was in Beijing for a business conference and decided to stay a few extra days to see the Olympics, said he still felt secure after hearing about the attack. "I feel sorry for what happened, but not scared. At least not yet," he said.
"My assumption is that it is a mental health issue, an individual issue," said Claire Cuddy, 60, who works in the education department of the Smithsonian Institution. "I hope it is an anomaly."
Horst Sayler, a physiotherapist for Swaziland's Olympic team, said, "There must have been a reason. Wherever you are in the world these things can happen."
Sayler's guide, an Olympic volunteer named Liu Xujun, said she and other volunteers would be vigilant about watching over their charges. "My job is to help keep him safe," she said, turning to Sayler.
© 2008 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.
By Minneapolis Star Tribune Staff and wire reports
August 9, 2008
A Minnesota business executive was killed and his wife critically wounded in a knife attack at a popular tourist site in downtown Beijing Saturday afternoon.
Todd Bachman, 62, the CEO of Bachman's garden centers, died and Barbara Bachman, also 62, was hospitalized in the intensive care unit at Peking Union Medical College Hospital with life-threatening injuries, after an apparently deranged man attacked them and their Chinese guide, who was also wounded.
The attacker then jumped to his death from the second story of the Drum Tower, an ancient structure in the heart of Beijing which was used to tell time in the Imperial era.
The Bachmans, of Farmington, were in China for the Olympics and were visiting the drum tower with their daughter, Elisabeth, a former Olympic volleyball player who is married to current U.S. Men's volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon.
The dramatic killing cast a shadow over the first full day of Olympic competition. The attack occurred despite an overwhelming security presence in the city, and marred the Chinese government's efforts to showcase the country as open and welcoming to foreigners.
Company officials scheduled a 4 p.m. press conference at Bachman's headquarters on S. Lyndale Avenue in Minneapolis.
Todd Bachman was the fourth-generation family member to head the 123-year-old business, and has worked at the company since 1968. He and his cousins in senior management oversee the company's 1,300 employees at 29 locations throughout the Twin Cities area. The company, a Twin Cities institution, began in 1885 as a vegetable farm in south Minneapolis and now includes full-service floral, gift and garden and landscape centers.
Bachman's also supplies poinsettias for the White House Christmas display each December, tradition began in 1984 when the company donated a display to the White House. Then-first lady Nancy Reagan enjoyed the arrangement so much that the annual deliveries became a mainstay.
Volleyball team in shock
The women's team was told of the attack around 5 p.m. Saturday at a team meeting, just five hours before its opening game against Japan. Many of the players who knew Bachman from previous national teams broke into tears.
"They were the sweetest family ever," the delegation member said. "They are a really Christian family. There's not one person who has ever met them who has a negative thing to say about them. They're a great family."
"They follow USA volleyball," the person with the team said. "They would leave little messages for the players. The whole reason they were here is because their life is USA volleyball."
Chinese officials did not speculate on the reasons behind the attack, which occurred around 12:20 p.m. in an area teeming with tourists.
Shopkeepers and others in the area who might have witnessed the attack declined comment, though one woman said "there was a lot of blood," which police quickly cleaned up.
Beijing officials identified the attacker as Tang Yongming, a 47-year-old man from the eastern city of Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, citing an identification card found on his body.
Clark Randt, the U.S. ambassador to China, visited Bachman in intensive care, but declined to comment on the attack. A source said she had undergone surgery.
President Bush, who is in Beijing to attend the Olympic Games, was informed of the attack, the White House said. "Laura and I were ...saddened by the attack on an American family and their Chinese tour guide today in Beijing. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families.
"And the United States government has offered to provide any assistance the family needs," Bush said in a statement tonight to reporters traveling with him.
A safe city
Although Beijing is a city of 17 million, its streets are generally safe and few residents fear walking alone even in the middle of the night. It is illegal for private Chinese citizens to own guns.
Still, there are regular reports of violent incidents throughout the country by people who lash out in frustration over government corruption or injustice. For example, a man who was angry over a rough police interrogation in Shanghai recently walked into the station and stabbed and killed six police officers and wounded four others.
Attacks against tourists are rare, but the U.S. embassy has warned they are on the rise. A reporter for New Zealand television covering the Games was returning to his hotel room Friday night when he was attacked and slightly injured by a young man wielding a broken chair, Kyodo News reported.
Last March, a Chinese man with a bomb strapped to his body took 10 Australians hostage on a bus in the tourist city of Xi'an. Police shot and killed him. No tourists were harmed.
Saturday's attack rattled Chinese officials, who had made safety the No. 1 priority of hosting the Games. Chinese President Hu Jintao has said on several occasions that a secure Olympics is essential for the state's image.
The government has deployed more than 100,000 police, soldiers and others around the capital and has instituted bag checks at all subway and train stations, as well as at many high-traffic tourist points around the city.
A manager of a local tour company said officials at the Drum Tower had not required visitors to go through a security check. The manager, Liu Jin of San Hai Travel Co., said she was unsure when the Drum Tower would reopen to tourists and whether security checks would be in place.
A couple hours after the attack, it was hard to imagine anything had happened at the Drum Tower, an imposing example of imperial Chinese architecture. The gates were closed and nearby residents said pools of blood had been cleaned up efficiently by an army of police and others.
Per Jorgensen, 62, who was in Beijing for a business conference and decided to stay a few extra days to see the Olympics, said he still felt secure after hearing about the attack. "I feel sorry for what happened, but not scared. At least not yet," he said.
"My assumption is that it is a mental health issue, an individual issue," said Claire Cuddy, 60, who works in the education department of the Smithsonian Institution. "I hope it is an anomaly."
Horst Sayler, a physiotherapist for Swaziland's Olympic team, said, "There must have been a reason. Wherever you are in the world these things can happen."
Sayler's guide, an Olympic volunteer named Liu Xujun, said she and other volunteers would be vigilant about watching over their charges. "My job is to help keep him safe," she said, turning to Sayler.
© 2008 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.
posted by Norman Larson @ 12:40 PM
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