RCMP say 10 people have died and 15 have been sent to hospitals after stabbings in multiple locations in Saskatchewan, including James Smith Cree Nation. Photo: APTN News file
RCMP say 10 people have died and 15 have been sent to hospitals after stabbings in multiple locations in Saskatchewan.
They say they are looking for two suspects – Damien Sanderson, 31, and Myles Sanderson, 30 – who are considered armed and dangerous.
RCMP Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore said Sunday the dead and injured were found in 13 locations on the James Smith Cree Nation and in the village of Weldon, northeast of Saskatoon.
She said the injured have been taken to various hospitals, and there may be other victims who went to hospitals on their own.
Some people were targeted and others were attacked at random, Blackmore said.
“It is horrific what has happened in our province today,” she told a news conference in Regina.
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She urged the suspects to turn themselves in.
Weldon resident Diane Shier said she was in her garden Sunday morning when she noticed emergency crews a couple of blocks away.
Shier said her neighbour, a man who lived with his grandson, was killed. She did not want to identify the victim out of respect for his family.
“I am very upset because I lost a good neighbour.”
She said businesses in the village of about 200 people are usually closed Sundays, but stores in larger surrounding communities had closed as a safety precaution.
Watch the RCMP news conference here
The hunt for the suspects was also on in Regina, where fans descended for a sold out annual Labour Day game between the Canadian Football League’s Saskatchewan Roughriders and Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
RCMP said there was a possible sighting in the city of a vehicle with the suspects.
The Regina Police Service, in a news release, said that with the help of Mounties, it was investigating on several fronts to locate and arrest the suspects and had “deployed additional resources for public safety throughout the city, including the football game at Mosaic Stadium.”
An alert first issued by Melfort RCMP about 7 a.m. was extended hours later to cover Manitoba and Alberta, as the two suspects remained at large.
Damien Sanderson was described as five feet seven inches tall and 155 pounds, and Myles Sanderson as six-foot-one and 200 pounds. Both have black hair and brown eyes and may be driving a black Nissan Rogue with licence plate 119 MPI.
READ the RCMP news release here
The Saskatchewan Health Authority said multiple patients were being treated at several sites.
“A call for additional staff was issued to respond to the influx of casualties,” authority spokeswoman Anne Linemann said in an email.
Mark Oddan, a spokesman with STARS Air Ambulance, said two helicopters were dispatched from Saskatoon and another from Regina.
Oddan said two carried patients from the scene to Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon, while the third carried a patient to Royal University from a hospital in Melfort, a short distance southeast of Weldon.
Oddan said due to privacy laws, he could not disclose information about their ages, genders or conditions.
He said other patients were transported by ground ambulance to hospitals in Prince Albert, Nipawin and Melfort, but didn’t know how many.
Oddan said the second chopper dispatched from Saskatoon carried a transport physician to the scene to assist with operations on the ground, but he did not know the location.
