The police have been looking for three days in the center-west of the country for Myles Sanderson, 32, suspected of being responsible, with his brother Damien, for one of the deadliest attacks in recent years in the country. .
The assaults, which left 10 dead and 18 injured, mainly took place in an indigenous community and remain unexplained so far.
“As we do not know where he is, we are asking the public to take the necessary precautions,” said the police, who extended the search area to the entire province of Saskatchewan, a vast rural territory made up of immense meadows.
On Monday, the body of Damien Sanderson was found stabbed with several stab wounds near the crime scene. The circumstances of his death remain to be clarified, but he could have been killed by his brother, according to the police.
Known to the police and the justice system for acts of violence, Myles Sanderson, who could himself be injured, had already been wanted since last May for not having respected his judicial control.
Authorities revealed the identities of those killed on Wednesday, with nine out of 10 from the James Smith Cree Nation community and the last from the nearby village of Weldon.
They are old men and women, from 23 to 78 years old. Among the injured, there is a “young teenager” and seventeen adults, added the federal police.
– “War zone” –
For the first time, some bereaved families have planned to pay their respects on Wednesday.
So far, relatives have chosen to express themselves almost exclusively on social networks, asking the media to stay away from their community, which has only 3,400 people.
“I lost a lot of my family members, there were bodies all over the ground, some dead and several others with serious stab wounds and bleeding,” Michael Brett Burns wrote on Facebook.
“It was a war zone. In their eyes you could see the pain and suffering of those who were assaulted,” he added.
In another post, Dillon Burns said his mother Gloria died “protecting a young man as he was attacked”, adding that “she would have done the same for all of us… (even ) for the man who took his life”.
According to the police, some victims were targeted while others were randomly beaten.
In Canada, aboriginal people represent approximately 5% of the 38 million inhabitants, and live in communities often ravaged by unemployment and poverty. They are also more often victims of homicide.
Ten patients were still hospitalized and three remained in critical condition, according to health authorities.
In recent years, Canada has experienced a succession of events of rare violence for the country.
In April 2020, a shooter posing as a police officer killed 22 people in Nova Scotia. In January 2017, six people were killed and five were injured in attacks on a mosque in Quebec.