Canada remains on high alert after Sunday’s deadly attacks. The village where it took place was under alert, Tuesday at midday, with the deployment of many police forces to try to apprehend the last surviving suspect, potentially hidden in the community.
After warning residents to take shelter via a message broadcast on all cell phones, numerous police cars arrived in this isolated town in central-western Canada, AFP journalists noted on the spot. .
One of the suspects found dead
Two brothers from the region – Damien and Myles Sanderson – are suspected of having spread terror in this village and the one next door on Sunday by stabbing 10 people to death and injuring 18 others before fleeing .
Since then, hundreds of police have launched a major manhunt. After more than a day of tracking, the police finally discovered the body of Damien Sanderson, 31, near one of the localities where the murders took place. The circumstances of his death remain to be clarified, but he could have been killed by his brother, according to the police.
Myles Sanderson, 30, is still at large and wanted. Known to the police and the justice system, this suspect, who could himself be injured, had already been wanted since last May for not having respected his judicial control. He had been sentenced to almost five years in prison, in particular for theft.
Emergency state
The murders affected first this indigenous community in James Smith Cree Nation and then the neighboring town of Weldon in Saskatchewan, a large rural province with a very sparse population in the mid-west of the country.
According to the police, some victims were targeted while others were randomly beaten. But the vast majority of them are indigenous. Since then the community of James Smith Cree Nation has declared a state of emergency.
Bobby Cameron, the leader of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN), which represents communities in the province, implored “all the people of Saskatchewan to share any relevant information”.