Mass Murder at James Smith Cree Nation

"This tragedy that happened here on our land, it's all because of drugs and alcohol."

"The drug problem we have here is rampant. It's gone out of control."

Ivor Wayne Burns, James Smith Cree Nation

"[It is tragic], the unspeakable violence that claimed the lives of innocent people."

"This is the destruction we face when harmful illegal drugs invade our communities, and we demand all authorities to take direction from the Chiefs and Councils and their membership to create safer and healthier communities for our people."

Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations Chief Bobby Cameron

"We were supposed to gather this evening at the gym, but we're on lockdown for the safety of everybody, so we could not gather."

"This is the safest way that we could reach you people [live streaming a prayer service on Facebook on Sunday night]."

"Lord, grant us strength to forgive. Grant us strength to get through this together."

Reverend Wilfred Sanderson, James Smith Cree Nation

An RCMP vehicle drives past a police road block set up in James Smith Cree Nation, Sask., on Tuesday. RCMP sent an alert Tuesday for residents of the reserve to shelter in place due to a possible sighting of the accused in Sunday's deadly mass stabbings. (Heywood Yu/The Canadian Press)

 

One of two brothers who rampaged through James Smith Cree Nation, a settlement of about two thousand, and nearby 200 population Weldon, was found in a heavily grassed area , dead of wounds sustained two days after 31-year-ld Damien Sanderson and his 30-year-old brother Myles rampaged through the two communities, attacking people at random, stabbing to death ten people and wounding another 18. 

The younger of the two remains at large, a fugitive, with RCMP believing he may be heavily wounded and alerting the area that he may be seeking medical assistance. Wounded or not, they stress, he remains a violent threat to anyone he may come across. Predawn Sunday morning the brothers set out on a mission of terror, by stabbing people to death. In such small close-knit communities where many are related and almost all know one another, although the attacks may have been random, the brothers knew those they stabbed to death.

 

Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore, centre, speaks while Regina police Chief Evan Bray looks on during a news conference in Regina. Police say the suspects, pictured on the right, are brothers. (Michael Bell/The Canadian Press)

 

"A Dangerous Persons Alert is being issued by the Melfort RCMP after several calls of stabbings on the James Smith Cree Nation."

"We have located ten deceased individuals and are investigating 13 locations."

"[He -- Myles Sanderson --] may have sustained injuries This has not been confirmed but we do want the public to know this because there is a possibility he may seek medical attention."

Even if he is injured, it doesn't mean he is not still dangerous."

Rhonda Blackmore, assistant RCMP commissioner, Saskatchewan

Speculation is that the younger brother and his older sibling may have turned on one another, that Myles Sanderson killed his brother Damien. Armed with knives the two men began kicking in doors before 6:00 a.m. in the community they lived in, the James Smith Cree Nation. Whoever they found inside the homes they invaded they stabbed to death, then moved on to the next house.

Children begged the killers to stop when they witnessed grandparents stabbed before their eyes. Children were themselves stabbed attempting to protect their mothers. The adult grandson of 77-year-old widower, Wes Petterson, a beloved resident of Weldon, a 30-minute drive from the James Smith Cree Nation, cowered in the basement of their home while his grandfather was being stabbed to death.

Just as the two brothers would have been familiar with all the residents of the two communities, those residents would have been quite familiar with the two mass murderers. Both had lengthy criminal records. Both had been imprisoned for violent crimes. Both were addicted to alcohol and to drugs. Both represented a living danger to the communities and both proved that concern was not misdirected.

They have left two communities in disbelief and in deep mourning over their losses.

 

Saskatchewan RCMP continue to search for Myles Sanderson, who is six-foot-one and 240 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. RCMP say Myles may not be wearing glasses and his current appearance may not exactly resemble this photo. (Saskatchewan RCMP)

 

The two brothers, in their early morning killing spree, struck at 13 different locations. In the duo's killing of ten people and injuring at least 18 others they were responsible for the worst mass-killing in the history of modern Saskatchewan. A manhunt for the two began soon after the 911 distress call was received and the RCMP appeared on the scene. They believed the brothers to have escaped on foot but soon found they had stolen a vehicle causing the police to dispatch a wider area alert.

Three medevac helicopters began ferrying the wounded from James Smith Cree Nation to Saskatoon's Royal University Hospital which called a Code Orange signalling a mass casualty incident. Coincidentally on Monday another emergency alert warning of shots fired at Witchekan Lake First Nation, roughly 200 kilometres west of James Smith went out. "At this time, it is not believed to be connected to the James Smith Cree Nation investigation", the alert read, as people were warned to shelter in place.

A police officer speaks with someone outside the James Smith Cree Nation Tuesday. There was a heavy police presence on James Smith after a possible sighting of the remaining suspect in the stabbings that occurred on the reserve and the nearby town of Weldon, Sask. (Lars Hagberg/AFP via Getty Images)