By David Stobbe
JAMES SMITH CREE NATION, Saskatchewan (Reuters) – Canada’s largest manhunt extended into its third day on Tuesday with hundreds of officers searching for the lone surviving suspect in a stabbing spree that killed 10 people on Sunday, roiling a country where mass violence is rare.
Myles Sanderson, 30, remained on the loose and possibly injured, police said, after they found his brother Damien Sanderson, 31, dead in a grassy area of the James Smith Cree Nation in Saskatchewan on Monday.
The brothers are suspected of murdering 10 people and wounding 18 more in a stabbing rampage that devastated an indigenous community in one of the deadliest attacks in Canada’s modern history.
Police said some of the victims appeared to have been targeted, while others were apparently random. (Graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/3cKaBP0)
Hundreds of police officers were searching for Myles Sanderson, who was considered armed and dangerous, said Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore of the Saskatchewan Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who has been briefing reporters.
Sanderson had previous run-ins with the law, and has been wanted since May when he stopped meeting his parole officer after serving a sentence for assault, robbery, mischief and uttering threats, CBC News reported.
Police said they were investigating whether Sanderson may also have killed his brother, and could have sustained injuries that might cause him to seek medical attention.
Police had yet to offer details about the victims except they were men and women spanning a wide range of ages.
People from the area said a mother of two, a 77-year-old widower and a first responder were among the victims.
Some First Nation leaders connected the killings with drug use, though police have yet to identify drugs or alcohol as a factor.
In an unrelated incident that has further rattled the province, police in Saskatchewan said on Monday they were investigating reports of a shooting on Witchekan Lake First Nation and warned the public that several armed suspects were at large.
(Reporting by David Stobbe in James Smith Cree Nation and Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
