Montreal, Canada | AFP |
Myles Sanderson, one of two brothers suspected of carrying out a series of September knife attacks in central Canada, committed all the murders on his own, police said Thursday.
Among the 11 people killed was his brother, Damien Sanderson, who was initially listed as the second suspect before his body was found near one of the crime scenes.
But “Myles committed, alone, all the homicides,” Royal Canadian Mounted Police Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore told a news conference.
Eighteen other people were injured in the September 4 attacks in remote Saskatchewan communities — the James Smith Cree Nation Aboriginal community and the small nearby village of Weldon.
Myles Sanderson, who had been apprehended after an extensive manhunt that lasted four days, died shortly after his arrest.
“Damien was involved in planning the attacks” but “Damien isn’t involved in any of the murders, added Blackmore.
She said the investigation was continuing in order to understand why certain victims had been targeted.
Police were able to establish that the Sanderson brothers had been dealing drugs in the community the day before the attacks and were involved in “three recent violent altercations.”
Known to the police and the justice system for multiple acts of violence and theft, Myles Sanderson had already been wanted since last May for breaching his parole conditions.
Almost all of the victims, aged 23 to 78, are Indigenous.
Such native populations represent about five percent of the 38 million inhabitants of Canada and live in communities often hit by unemployment and poverty.
In recent years, Canada has experienced a succession of events of rare violence for the country — “tragedies that have become too common” lamented Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after the murders.
In April 2020, a shooter posing as a police officer killed 22 people in Nova Scotia, while six people died in 2017 attacks on a mosque in Quebec.
© Agence France-Presse