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Myles Sanderson, one of two suspects in a stabbing spree that left 10
people dead in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, has died, police
said Wednesday night. He had been arrested earlier in the afternoon
following a three-day manhunt.

"Shortly after his arrest, he went into medical distress," Rhonda
Blackmore, assistant commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Saskatchewan, said at a press conference Wednesday night. He was
transported to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Blackmore said.
A cause of death was not given.

An official previously told The Associated Press that Sanderson had died
of self-inflicted wounds. The official did not explain when or how those
wounds were sustained.

Sanderson's brother, 30-year-old Damien Sanderson, who is also suspected
in the attacks, was found dead Monday. His wounds did not appear to be self-inflicted, police said.

Prior to his arrest, police received a report that Sanderson was armed
with a knife and outside a residence, from which he stole a white SUV. The owner of the vehicle was not hurt, Blackmore said. After the SUV was
spotted speeding on the highway, the vehicle was "directed off the road
and into a nearby ditch" by police, Blackmore said. Sanderson was the only occupant of the vehicle, according to Blackmore.

An official familiar with the matter said officers rammed Sanderson's
vehicle and he surrendered. The official spoke on condition of anonymity
as the person was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

Video and photos from the scene showed a white SUV off to the side of the
road with police cars all around.

"Myles Sanderson was located and taken into police custody near Rosthern,
SK at approximately 3:30 p.m. today," the province of Saskatchewan said in
an emergency alert Wednesday afternoon. "There is no longer a risk to
public safety relating to this investigation."

Myles Sanderson, 32, was facing three counts of first-degree murder, one
count of attempted murder and one count of break-and-enter.

Shortly before police said Myles Sanderson had been apprehended, a person
who was reported to be armed with a knife was sighted in the town of Wakaw
and in the city of Prince Albert, RCMP said. Wakaw is about 40 miles south
of Prince Albert. Both are in Saskatchewan.

The person was spotted in a 2008 white Chevrolet Avalanche with
Saskatchewan license plate No. 953 LPL. The vehicle was reported stolen at
2:10 p.m. local time, police said.

Some family members of the victims arrived at the scene and thanked
police, including Brian Burns, whose wife and son were killed.

"Now we can start to heal. The healing begins today, now," he said.

Another of Burns' sons was wounded and "hopefully can sleep at night now knowing he's behind bars," Burns said.

Sunday's stabbing spree occurred in 13 separate locations throughout the
James Smith Cree Nation and in Weldon, authorities said. Police said that
the death of Sanderson's brother, 30-year-old Damien Sanderson, did not
appear to be self-inflicted.

Along with the 10 fatalities, another 19 people were injured in the
stabbing attack.

The stabbing rampage raised questions of why Myles Sanderson — an ex-con
with 59 convictions and a long history of shocking violence — was out on
the streets in the first place.

He was released by a parole board in February while serving a sentence of
over four years on charges that included assault and robbery. But he had
been wanted by police since May, apparently for violating the terms of his release, though the details were not immediately clear.

His long and lurid rap sheet also showed that seven years ago, he attacked
and stabbed one of the victims killed in the weekend rampage, according to court records.

Canadian Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said there will be an investigation into the parole board's assessment of Sanderson.

"I want to know the reasons behind the decision" to release him, Mendicino said. "I'm extremely concerned with what occurred here. A community has
been left reeling."

Investigators have not given a motive for the bloodshed.

The Saskatchewan Coroner's Service said nine of those killed were from the James Smith Cree Nation: Thomas Burns, 23; Carol Burns, 46; Gregory Burns,
28; Lydia Gloria Burns, 61; Bonnie Burns, 48; Earl Burns, 66; Lana Head,
49; Christian Head, 54; and Robert Sanderson, 49, One was from Weldon, 78- year-old Wesley Patterson.

Authorities would not say how the victims might be related.

Mark Arcand said his half-sister Bonnie and her son Gregory were killed.

"Her son was lying there already deceased. My sister went out and tried to
help her son, and she was stabbed two times, and she died right beside
him," he said. "Right outside of her home she was killed by senseless
acts. She was protecting her son. She was protecting three little boys.
This is why she is a hero."

Arcand rushed to the reserve the morning of the rampage. After that, he
said, "I woke up in the middle of the night just screaming and yelling.
What I saw that day I can't get out of my head."

As for what set off the violence, Arcand said: "We're all looking for
those same answers. We don't know what happened. Maybe we'll never know.
That's the hardest part of this."

Court documents said Sanderson attacked his in-laws Earl Burns and Joyce
Burns in 2015, knifing Earl Jones repeatedly and wounding Joyce Burns. He
later pleaded guilty to assault and threatening Earl Burns' life.

Many of Sanderson's crimes were committed when he was intoxicated,
according to court records. He told parole officials at one point that substance use made him out of his mind. Records showed he repeatedly
violated court orders barring him from drinking or using drugs.

Canada's Indigenous communities are plagued by drugs and alcohol.

"The drug problem and the alcohol problem on these reserves is way out of hand," said Ivor Wayne Burns, whose sister was killed in the weekend
attacks. "We have dead people, and we asked before for something to be
done."

Myles Sanderson's childhood was marked by violence, neglect and substance abuse, court records show. Sanderson, who is Indigenous and was raised on
the Cree reserve, population 1,900, started drinking and smoking marijuana
at around 12, and cocaine followed soon after.

In 2017, he barged into his ex-girlfriend's home, punched a hole in the
door of a bathroom while his two children were hiding in a bathtub and
threw a cement block at a vehicle parked outside, according to parole documents.

He got into a fight a few days later at a store, threatening to kill an employee and burn down his parents' home, documents said.

That November he threatened an accomplice into robbing a fast-food
restaurant by clubbing him with a gun and stomping on his head. He then
stood watch during the holdup.

In 2018, he stabbed two men with a fork while drinking and beat someone unconscious.

When he was released in February, the parole board set conditions on his contact with his partner and children and also said he should not enter
into relationships with women without written permission from his parole officer.

In granting Sanderson "statutory release," parole authorities said: "It is
the Board's opinion that you will not present an undue risk to society."

Canadian law grants prisoners statutory release after they serve two-
thirds of their sentence. But the parole board can impose conditions on
that freedom, and inmates who violate them - as Sanderson did more than
once - can be ordered back to prison.

Sharna Sugarman, who was organizing a GoFundMe for the victims, questioned
the parole board for releasing him and wondered why Sanderson was still on
the loose so many months after he was deemed "unlawfully at large."

"That's just egregious to me," said Sugarman, a counselor who counted one
of the stabbing victims as a client. "If they claim that they've been
looking for him, well, you weren't looking that hard."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/canada-stabbing-myles-sanderson-arrested/

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