Canada: Police charge 2 suspects, still at large

Ottawa, Sep 06: Canadian police said on Monday that an enormous manhunt continued for two suspects believed to be behind one of the country's worst ever mass killings.

Ten people were killed and 18 injured in an attack on an Indigenous community and a nearby town in a rural area of the province of Saskatchewan. Police named the suspects as Damien Sanderson, 31, and Myles Sanderson, 30, and said they believed the pair had been in the provincial capital of Regina on Sunday.

Police issued warrants for both the fugitives' arrest on Monday.

"They have not been located, so efforts continue,'' Regina Police Chief Evan Bray said in a video posted on Twitter on Monday morning. "We will not stop until we have those two safely in custody.''

Police have not given many details about the suspects, except that Myles Sanderson was listed as "unlawfully at large" in the spring in relation to another crime. They added that some victims appears to be targeted while others were attacked at random.

Authorities declined to comment on a motive, but the chief of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations suggested the stabbings could be drug-related.

"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,'' said Chief Bobby Cameron.

What happened during the attack?

Police were called to the James Smith Cree Nation over a stabbing at 5:40 a.m. on Sunday, and within minutes heard about several more. In all, dead or wounded people were found at 13 different locations on the sparsely populated reserve and in the town of Weldon, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) away.

With the suspects at large, fear continued to grip communities in the area, a working-class part of Saskatchewan surrounded by farmland. One witness who said he lost family members described seeing people with bloody wounds scattered throughout the Indigenous reserve.

"No one in this town is ever going to sleep again. They're going to be terrified to open their door,'' said one resident of Weldon.

The elected leaders of the three communities that make up the James Smith Cree Nation declared a local state of emergency.

Chief Calvin Sanderson, the leader of one of the three First Nations that make up the community, and who is not related to the suspects, said everyone has been affected.

"They were our relatives, friends," Sanderson said of the victims. "It's pretty horrific.''

es/msh (AP, AFP)

Source: DW