Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) are still searching for a suspect involved in a mass stabbing attack on a Saskatchewan First Nations reserve that left ten people dead and another 18 injured.
RCMP say they are still hunting for 32-year-old Myles Sanderson after his brother Damien Sanderson, who is also believed to have been involved in the mass stabbing murders, was found dead earlier this week on Monday.
The brothers are said to have been behind the mass stabbing incident that took place on the James Smith Cree Nation reserve and the nearby town of Weldon, Saskatchewan on early Sunday morning, broadcaster CBC reports.
RCMP were alerted to the mass stabbings at around 5:40 am on Sunday morning and issued a dangerous person alert to residents of the area just after 7 am, telling residents of the James Smith Cree Nation to shelter in their homes. By 3:45 pm on Sunday police stated that ten people had died and 15 others were injured and added that the attacks had taken place in at least 13 locations, with the number of injured later updated to 18.
On Monday, 31-year-old Damien Sanderson was found dead and according to RCMP, his wounds did not appear to have been self-inflicted. The RCMP have also stated they no longer believe that Myles Sanderson is still in the James Smith Cree Nation area and that a vehicle that may be linked to the suspect was reported to have been seen in the city of Regina on Sunday.
“Although we don’t know his whereabouts, we are still looking not only within the city of Regina but expanded into the province as well,” Regina police chief Evan Bray said.
While motive for the mass stabbing attack is unclear, Myles Sanderson has a long criminal history and has been convicted a total of 59 times for various offences from assault, assault with a weapon, robbery and assaulting police. He was given a statutory release from prison last year after partially serving his four-year prison term but was again arrested last Autumn but released earlier this year.
The mass stabbing is just the latest mass casualty event in Canada in recent years and comes just two years after gunman Gabriel Wortman murdered 22 people in Nova Scotia in April of 2020 while partially dressed up as an RCMP officer and driving a replica of an RCMP vehicle. Wortman committed his shootings and set fires in 16 different locations over the period of around thirteen hours before he was shot dead by police.