Key Points
- Myles Sanderson, 30, was apprehended on the fourth day of an intense manhunt.
- Authorities said he and his older brother were responsible for the stabbings.
The suspect sought by Canadian authorities in a weekend stabbing spree that killed 10 people in and around an indigenous reserve was arrested on Wednesday but suffered unspecified "medical distress" and died a short time later at a hospital, police said.
Official word that the four-day manhunt for Myles Sanderson, 30, ended with his death came during a late-night news conference hours after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) reported he had been taken into custody.
The RCMP said the arrest occurred near the town of Rosthern, Saskatchewan, about 100 km southwest of the area where one of the bloodiest acts of mass violence in the country's history unfolded on Sunday.
Canada's Global News agency, citing multiple law enforcement sources, later reported that Sanderson had surrendered to police and was taken away alive in an ambulance after a highway pursuit in which police rammed his vehicle off the road. Global News said he died shortly afterwards of unspecified injuries that authorities believe were self-inflicted.
RCMP Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore told reporters Sanderson "went into medical distress" shortly after he was detained, that emergency medical personnel on the scene attended to him and he was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
She declined to address questions about whether he might have consumed a drug or other substance that killed him, saying the manner and cause of his death would be determined by an autopsy.
His older brother and accused accomplice, Damien Sanderson, 31, was found slain on Monday in a grassy area of the James Smith Cree Nation. Police were investigating whether the younger sibling might have killed his brother, and that he may have sustained an injury requiring medical attention.
Assistant Commissioner Blackmore said an emergency-911 caller who reported spotting Myles Sanderson before his arrest indicated he appeared to have had a visible injury.
In addition to the 10 victims killed on Sunday, 18 others were wounded in the rampage, which unnerved a country where instances of mass murder are rare. Police said some of the victims appeared to have been targeted, while others were apparently random.
Authorities have offered no motive for the attacks, which occurred on the James Smith Cree Nation reserve, home to some 3,400 people, and the nearby village of Weldon, about 320 km north of the provincial capital of Regina.
Answers sought
Relatives of Canada's stabbing spree victims spoke out Wednesday about their "nightmare" and called for answers from authorities.
Three days after the rampage shattered a remote Indigenous community, Mark Arcand said the killings that claimed the lives of his sister Bonnie Burns, 48, and her son Gregory Burns, 28, were a "horrible, senseless act."
Family of the victims of a series of stabbings on the James Smith Cree Nation reserve in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan hug following a news conference in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan on Wednesday, 7 September 2022. Source: AAP / AP
"How did this happen to our family? Why did it happen? We have no answers," he told a press conference.
"We just know that our family members were killed in their own home, in their yard."
Mr Arcland recounted how his sister had rushed out of her house to help her son, who was bleeding out in the driveway of their home after being stabbed several times.
"She was stabbed two times, and she died right beside him," he said.
"She was trying to protect her son." A neighbour ran over to try to stop the assailants, but she was also stabbed to death, he said.
'It was a war zone'
He said the family and the community has "a steep hill to climb, and we're going to climb it together, united."
Several vigils were scheduled for Wednesday evening. Those wounded in the attack were 17 adults and one young teen, police said.
Among them was another son of Bonnie Burns, who was slashed in the neck.
Several of the deceased victims had been identified by families and friends on social media, including a veteran, an addiction counsellor, and a mother of two who worked as a security guard at a local casino.
"I lost a lot of family ... bodies everywhere on (the reservation), some deceased and many others with severe knife wounds and bleeding," Michael Brett Burns posted on Facebook.
"It was a war zone. The look in their eyes couldn't express the pain and suffering for those who were assaulted." Police believe some of the victims were targeted, and others were attacked randomly.
Ten people — some of whom had been airlifted on Sunday — remain hospitalized, including three in critical condition, according to the Saskatchewan Health Authority. Seven others have been discharged.
