CBC News reported a heavy police presence at the Saskatchewan Indian reservation, located about 320 km (200 miles) south of the provincial capital of Regina, as the manhunt for the suspect entered its third day. .
Hours later, however, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said their “investigation has determined” that the suspect, 30-year-old Myles Sanderson, “is not in the community” of the reserve and that authorities continued to search for him.
Sanderson remains at large and possibly injured, police said after investigators found his alleged accomplice and older brother Damien Sanderson, 31, dead on Monday in a grassy area of the James Smith Cree Nation.
The two men are believed to have killed 10 people and injured 18 others in a stabbing attack on the James Smith Cree reserve and the nearby village of Weldon on Sunday, putting in me an Indigenous community of 3,400 people in one of the deadliest attacks in modern Canadian history.
On Monday evening, Regina Police Chief Evan Bray said authorities were focusing their search for the surviving suspect in the provincial capital, based on their latest information.
On Tuesday, the focus of the manhunt appeared to change when Saskatchewan RCMP issued an emergency alert saying they were responding to reports that the suspect had been spotted on the James Smith Cree reserve and that it warned residents to shelter in place.
The alert was updated about three hours later to say Sanderson was not found there, his whereabouts remain unknown, and to ask the public “to take appropriate precautions.”
At a Vancouver event, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged residents to heed local authorities. “All Canadians stand in solidarity with the people of Saskatchewan at this time,” he added.
UNCLEAR REASONS
Authorities have not offered any possible motive for the attacks. Police said some of the victims appear
have been targeted, while others were apparently chosen at random. Chart :
Some First Nations leaders linked the killings to drug use, but police did not identify drugs or alcohol as a factor.
The stabbings have caused “immeasurable stress and panic” in the community, leaders of a group of 74 First Nations in Saskatchewan said in a statement Monday, imploring members of the public to come forward with any relevant information.
Ivor Wayne Burns, a resident of the James Smith Cree Nation, said the Sanderson brothers were from First Nations communities and were under the influence of drugs at the time of the crimes.
Myles Sanderson was considered armed and dangerous, RCMP Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore said.
Sanderson has been wanted as a fugitive since May, when he stopped meeting with his parole officer after serving time in prison for assault, robbery and other misdemeanors, CBC News reported.
The CBC, citing documents from the Canadian Parole Board, reported that Sanderson had amassed a criminal record of 59 convictions over two decades.
Asked at a press briefing on Tuesday about reports that Sanderson had been illegally at large for several months, Trudeau told reporters: “We are still in crisis mode.”
“Over the past two days we have been focused on doing everything we can to keep people safe,” he added.
Police said they were investigating whether Mr Sanderson could also have killed his brother and suffered injuries that could lead him to seek medical attention.
Few details were available of the victims, which included men and women of a wide age range.
Local residents said a mother of two, a 77-year-old widower and a paramedic were among the victims. nL1N30C1CA
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