Front Burner - A mass killing in Saskatchewan

Episode Date: September 6, 2022

Eleven people have died, including a suspect, and at least 18 injured after a brutal attack that started in James Smith Cree Nation, Saskatchewan on Sunday. Two brothers, Damien and Myles Sanderson, were charged with first-degree murder and were being sought for the attack. On Monday, the RCMP confirmed Damien, 31, has been found dead, while Myles, 30, is still at large. The RCMP have asked residents across the province to remain vigilant. At this stage of the investigation, they believe some victims were “targeted by the suspects” while others were attacked “randomly.” Today on Front Burner, we talk to CBC Saskatoon’s Dan Zakreski on what we know so far about the suspects, the victims, and the investigation into the attack.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hello, I'm Jamie Poisson. In Saskatchewan on Sunday, a brutal attack that left 10 people dead and at least 18 injured. At the time that we recorded this on Monday evening, one suspect is still on the loose. The other suspect has since been found dead. This situation, it's still unfolding.

But we wanted to fill you in on what we know so far about this mass killing. And for that, I've got CBC Saskatoon's Dan Zakreski with me. He's been reporting on this horrific, ongoing story. Dan, thank you so much for joining me. You're welcome, Jamie. So take me back to the beginning here. What do we know so far about when and how this deadly spree began? Sure. You know, I think for the people intimately and directly involved, it started around 5.30 in the morning on Sunday on the James Smith First Nation here in central Saskatchewan. That's when RCMP say they started to receive multiple 911 calls from that First Nation.

they started to receive multiple 911 calls from that First Nation. The closest RCMP point is in a small city called Melford, about 25 minutes away. So it's about 50 kilometers. They got out there. They started to alert the medical authorities. The helicopter transports were scrambled, the ground ambulances. So that's when it all began there. It didn't really become a province-wide story until about two hours later. So that would be around 7 a.m. Saskatchewan time.

And that's when the dangerous person alert went out. The infamous wild chirping of your cell phones that woke up everybody across Saskatchewan. Okay. When did you first realize something really grave was going on in your province? Was it when you got the alert or something else? I sort of, I don't know a good way to say this, I sort of blew off the alert. You know, it was a long weekend, a gorgeous fall weekend here. I looked at it, and when I saw it on my phone, I know where James Smith is relative to Saskatoon. You know, it's about two hours plus away. So the initial reports, it seemed like it was fairly self-contained.

This isn't the first bad thing that's happened on James Smith. You know, it's not the First Nation's reputation, but it was a year ago that they had an active shooter on the First Nation. Two people were killed, but that was fairly self-contained as well. So you sort of see these things, and I just sort of thought in passing, while it's just sad and scary that people are covering it, it wasn't until mid-morning that I had gotten a call from a colleague of mine. And when we started to get a sense of these initial numbers, you know, I still have a hard time talking about it. I mean, I've worked here for upwards of four decades and I've never seen anything like this. Yeah. And I understand,

too, that the hospital had a code orange, right? It was really chilling because we already had reports that Royal University Hospital here in Saskatoon, which is the main trauma hospital for the northern part of the province, was having helicopters land and take off from a telepath on the roof. So we knew it was bad. So I went over to the hospital and I could hear them calling the code orange over the hospital PA system. So you've got this crackle, you know, code orange. And the last time I had heard a code orange was the Humboldt Broncos bus crash. That's a mass fatality call. And to be in a trauma center when a call like that goes over the PA, you can just feel the tension ratchet up right away.

We mentioned in the intro as of Monday evening, 11 are dead, at least 18 are injured. And so what do we know at this point about these attacks? Yeah, you know, there's lots of stuff we know and there's lots of stuff we don't know, which is, I guess, the nature of these stories. and there's lots of stuff we don't know, which is, I guess, the nature of these stories. You know, the police have suggested that the victims in this case were a mix of individuals who were targeted by the suspects and also random, who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. We also know that the bulk of this violent activity took place on the James Smith First Nation. You know, it's just been really difficult to get a hold of people and to find out what's going on. But even a

cursory scan of the condolence posts on social media just gives a sense of the breadth and the real tragedy that the victims in this case are all ages and all genders. And we don't know the motive. And from the sounds of it, most, if not all these people were stabbed, which is quite hard to wrap your head around. Yes, it is. And it is. And it isn't. I mean, it offers some interesting, if I could say that, conjecture about what happened. Because I mean, certainly when we were talking in the office, you know, and when you're on the road in the community, you're thinking, well, how does that happen? And then when you think, like, I've been up to the James Smith First Nation, and it's a fairly classic First Nation in the sense that you drive through

the community, they have the raised bungalows, but, you know, some of them are in small groups, some of them are standalone individual groups. Some of them are standalone individual residents. It's not like a conventional urban neighborhood. So we started to think, how could this happen? Well, it wasn't guns, right? So you don't have gunshots alerting people. So this is at 5.30 in the morning, there's a knock at your door where your door is forced open. You open it and there's a guy there who starts stabbing you. You know, this could have all happened in 20 minutes.

You know, we just don't know. But that's sort of the hard thing to wrap it around. You know, somebody with a bladed weapon and that sort of resolves the sort of havoc they can engender. gender. We're just starting to learn about some of the victims. I understand the first victim to be identified was a woman named Lana Head. And what do we know about her? Yes, we're being really careful about how we do the identification and how we characterize Lana Head's family, shared information with us.

She's a 49-year-old woman who lived on the First Nation. She had two adult daughters and she worked as a security guard at a casino and a commissioner. Reuters is reporting that a first responder named Gloria Burns was also killed, as well as Wes Patterson, a 77-year-old widower. Yes, you know, as time passes here and they embark on their healing on the First Nation and become sort of more comfortable with sharing what's going on, we're going to be pursuing all of these stories.

And it's going to be ugly, but I think we're going to hear stories of bravery and self-sacrifice. So we know the majority of the stabbings took place on the James Smith Cree Nation. Also some violence took place in the nearby town of Weldon. And I wonder if you could give me more of a sense of these communities. Yes, I think, you know, for people outside of Saskatchewan, you've got to understand that this is all taking place in what's sort of widely considered the geographic center of the province. Prince Albert is the largest nearby city. The James Smith First Nation is about 50 to 60 kilometers due east of there. So if you go left to right, that's a line going that way. The village of Weldon would be the bottom point of a triangle about 25 kilometers from both places.

So we're initially dealing with a fairly small geographic area. You know, it's that part of the province. It's sort of a mix of the postcard images of Saskatchewan that you see of the big grain fields and such. But it's also on the edge of the boreal forest. So you have broken parkland, you have paved roads, grid roads, dirt roads. It's a very beautiful part of the province. As a First Nation, James Smith has about 2,000 people that live on the community in the First Nation itself.

So the population isn't much larger than a big city high school. So that's what we're looking at. And the village of Weldon is literally a village of about 200 people. And I know in Weldon, you actually spoke with someone who had a really unsettling encounter on Sunday morning. And can you tell me about that? Certainly. When I was in the community, I met two women there, Doreen and Leona Leese. Doreen is 89 years old, is a lifelong

resident of the community, and her daughter Leona is 61. They were awakened on Sunday morning as people across the province were by the danger alert on their phone. They woke up, saw that it had happened at James Smith, but didn't really, you know, think too much of it because the community is far enough away that there was no reason for anybody at James Smith to be in their little village. So they were sort of having this discussion, the mother and daughter, trying to figure out what was going on. They're having coffee out on their front deck. And then Leona said that this vehicle, an SUV, just went flying by the front of their house, going way too fast for that community. She says it's a quiet little village. They don't get a lot of traffic like that.

So they were trying to figure out what was going on. And as they were having this chat, they said a young man came around the side of the house holding something up to his face, a cloth or a jacket, saying that he had been injured in his face, he'd been stabbed, and he wanted somebody to take him to the hospital. They were quite alarmed. So they immediately said, well, let's see your face, let's see the extent of your injuries. And he was saying, no, it's too bad. I can't show you. So Leona, the daughter, was a little suspicious by this. So she said, well, look, I'm going to make a call. She went into the house. And when she came back

out, the young man had taken off with the 89-year-old mother in pursuit. And Leona said, get back here, Mom. This isn't adding up. They then called the RCMP, who showed up and confirmed that the vehicle that they had seen driving by matched the description of the suspect vehicle from James Smith. The individual who came around the corner matched the description of the suspects they were looking for. And I think what really horrified them was they had also found out that an elderly gentleman in their little village had been murdered that very day. So it was quite an unsettling morning for them, just on all those fronts. The person that came around their house,

you know, purportedly asking for help, was he covered in blood or anything? No, I asked them, did they feel threatened? Did he have a weapon? Was there blood splatter anywhere, anything to support the notion that he'd been hurt? And they said no. I think that's what concerned them originally, was this fellow was claiming to be injured but wouldn't show the injury and didn't have any evidence to suggest that he had been. They said he was actually quite well-dressed and seemed to be a handsome young man is how they described him.

Just talking about this community a little bit longer, our colleague spoke with a woman in Walden named Ruby Works. She was really distraught as well. I really, I can't imagine the anxiety, the fear, something like this would cause in these small rural communities. Both communities are destroyed. Our lives are a shadow to all of us in this community. I'm terrified to go to sleep.

I'm even terrified to open my door. They don't know if they're gonna come back again. That's what I'm terrified. In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization. Empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. Hi, it's Ramit Sethi here.

You may have seen my money show on Netflix. I've been talking about money for 20 years. I've talked to millions of people and I have some startling numbers to share with you. Did you know that of the people I speak to, 50% of them do not know their own household income? That's not a typo, 50%. That's because money is confusing. In my new book and podcast, Money for Couples, I help you and your partner create a financial vision together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Couples. So initially the suspects were two men, right? We now know that they were brothers, Miles and Damian Sanderson. And what did we first start hearing about them? Well, this was a rapidly developing story. The first thing that we heard was when the RCMP released the photos and names of the suspects. And it was confusing right from the beginning,

because as soon as they released the photos, the first thing we found out was they had released an incorrect photo of one of the two men, and then people started weighing in online saying, look, the photos you've released don't reflect how these guys look right now. So all we knew at the beginning was that RCMP were looking for two men, Damien and Miles Sanderson. We didn't know the familial connection. The RCMP were not saying whether they were brothers, cousins, second cousins, anything like that. We just knew that they were looking for these two men. And then that all changed today, this afternoon.

Yeah, and what did we learn Monday afternoon from the RCMP? RCMP had a news conference, and first of all, they confirmed the relationship. We found out that Miles and Damian Sanderson were, in fact, brothers. We also found out that at 11.30, while the RCMP were doing their investigation on the First Nation, 1130, while the RCMP were doing their investigation on the First Nation, they found a deceased person outdoors near one of the residences they were looking at. Within two hours, they were able to determine that that deceased man was in fact Damien Sanderson. We can confirm he has visible injuries. These injuries are not believed to be self-inflicted at this point.

So somebody had hurt him enough that he died. They also believed that Damien's brother, Miles, had been injured as well. Miles Sanderson, Damien's brother, may have sustained injuries. This has not been confirmed. But we do want the public to know this may have sustained injuries. This has not been confirmed. But we do want the public to know this because there is a possibility he may seek medical attention.

Although they're not saying why they believe that. And the chief of police in Regina, Chief Evan Bray, went on and reconfirmed that they still believe that Miles Sanderson is in Regina and may in fact be seeking medical attention. If I can use that expression, he doubled down on their assessment that somebody yesterday in Regina had seen two people in that suspect vehicle, the black Nissan Rogue in Regina. What I'm trying to say is the information that we received yesterday about that vehicle being in the city with two people in the vehicle that matched the description is still relevant and believed to be true information. So I think, you know, we're... They had initially believed that it was Damien and Miles,

but they now believe that Damien, in fact, died on the First Nation. They don't know who the second person is, but they're still actively seeking Miles in Regina. I do know from my work yesterday that Miles Sanderson, he was already wanted by police. It was quite interesting to start running his name through the databases and find out that back on the May long weekend of this year, so May 24th in Saskatoon, he was reported unlawfully at large and the police had been actually looking for him ever since then. Miles has a lengthy criminal record involving both persons and property crimes.

Miles is facing three counts of first-degree murder and is wanted. We consider him armed and dangerous. So what we were able to determine was that Miles Sanderson had been serving a federal sentence, a penitentiary sentence. Last year hit the point in his sentence where it was the statutory release. So if you've served a certain amount of your sentence and they can't make a great argument to keep you in prison, they will release you with conditions. That's when he was released. We know that back on the Maylong weekend, he simply stopped reporting to whoever he was supposed to report to. And he was in the wind, as they say, and the authorities have been looking for him ever since.

Right. You know, we're talking early Monday evening. I imagine it's going to be another pretty unsettling night for a lot of people. What are you hearing from people across Saskatchewan about how they're feeling right now? They're coming back to the same messages of if you think you see these people or this person, if you think you see the vehicle, call the authorities and stay away. Miles Sanderson may be injured, but he's also a chief suspect in a horrific mass murder and is armed. And if all this bears out, he's willing to hurt people. He's in one of the cities, the police believe he's in one of the province's largest cities, and they just want everybody to be on high alert.

He's possibly injured. He's considered armed. He's considered dangerous. And this is not over by any means. Okay. Dan, thank you. Thank you so much for this. You're welcome. All right, that is all for today. Again, for the latest information, you can check out cbc.ca slash news. And we're going to be keeping on top of this story as it develops. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.