JAMES SMITH CREE NATION: Canadian police on Wednesday arrested the second and final suspect over the stabbing spree that saw 10 people killed and 18 wounded in a remote Indigenous community, two days after the first suspect was found dead.
A pickup truck in a ditch surrounded by a dozen police cars pointed to a dramatic end to a four-day manhunt across the vast Prairies region.
It also offered relief to a nation distressed by one of modern Canada’s deadliest incidents of mass violence.
“Myles Sanderson was located and taken into police custody… at approximately 3:30 pm today,” police said. “There is no longer a risk to public safety relating to this investigation.”
Authorities also thanked the public for “providing pertinent information about potential sightings” of the fugitive.
An AFP reporter at the scene saw several police cars surrounding a white pickup along the side of a highway.
An hour before Sanderson’s arrest, police issued an alert about a man armed with a knife in a stolen white Chevy Avalanche nearby, making a link to the stabbing case and urging locals to shelter in place.
Following the arrest, the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations said it was “relieved that Myles Sanderson is in police custody.”
Now, it added, “the healing process begins.”
A massive manhunt for two brothers believed to be responsible for the killings on Sunday had spread across Canada’s west-central prairies.
It focused at one point on Regina, Saskatchewan province’s capital 300 kilometers (185 miles) to the south, and then back to the James Smith Cree Nation – in response to reported sightings.
On Monday the search turned up the body of 31-year-old Damien Sanderson in a grassy field in the Cree community.
Authorities said he likely had been killed by his 32-year-old sibling, who remained a fugitive until his arrest near the town of Rosthern in Saskatchewan – about 100 kilometres west of where the stabbings occurred.
Myles Sanderson has a history of explosive violence that led to 59 past convictions, and is also wanted for breaching parole in May after serving part of a sentence for assault and robbery.
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