The latest suspect in recent mass stabbings in and around a Canadian reserve has died after running off the road, police have confirmed.
Myles Sanderson, 32, was found near the town of Rosthern in central Saskatchewan when officers responded to reports of a stolen vehicle driven by a man armed with a knife, Royal said. Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
Officers pulled Sanderson’s vehicle off the road into a ditch and he was taken into custody, but he went into what a spokeswoman described as “medical distress.”
He was taken to hospital, but died shortly afterwards.
Ten people were killed and 18 injured after attacks in and around the James Smith Cree Nation, an indigenous community in the central province of Saskatchewan, on Sunday.
Ten victims remain in hospital, three of them in critical condition.
At a press conference confirming Myles Sanderson’s death, RCMP Deputy Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore said she had gone to visit the James Smith Cree Nation, home to nine of the ten victims, and said many of them had “presented incredible trauma”.
“A lot of people haven’t slept,” he said. “They told me: ‘every time I close my eyes, I hear noises’.
“I hope this gives them some sense of closure and they can rest easy tonight knowing that Myles is no longer at large.
“I hope they can start to heal now.”
Image: Brian Burns’ wife Bonnie and son Gregory were killed in the attacks
Hundreds of police officers launched an extensive manhunt for the suspects, Myles and his brother Damien Sanderson, who had fled the scene of the crime.
Damien was found dead in a grassy area of the James Smith Cree Nation on Monday, with wounds that police said were not self-inflicted.
Myles Sanderson, who officers described as armed and dangerous, remained at large as of Wednesday afternoon.
Sunday’s stabbing was one of the deadliest attacks in modern Canadian history.
Police said some of the victims appeared to have been deliberately attacked, while others were attacked at random.
Officers have not released a possible motive, but a statement from an indigenous group in the province suggested the stabbings could be drug-related.
But Mrs Blackmore said: “Unfortunately, now that Myles is dead, we may never understand that motivation.”
Image: Friends of James Smith Cree Nation victims console each other
Violating probation
Questions are beginning to be asked about why Myles Sanderson, with 59 convictions and a long history of violence, took to the streets.
The 32-year-old was released by a parole board in February while serving a more than four-year sentence for charges that included assault and robbery. But he had been wanted by police since May, apparently for violating the conditions of his release.