Suspect in deadly mass stabbings eludes Canadian manhunt for 3rd day

OTTAWA, Sept 6 (Reuters) – Canadian police converged on the James Smith Cree Nation on Tuesday, drawn back to the area by possible sightings of the man wanted in a stabbing spree that killed 10 people, but the suspect remained at large in the third day of an intense manhunt.

CBC News reported a heavy police presence on the indigenous reserve in Saskatchewan, about 320 km (200 miles) north of the provincial capital of Regina, where Sunday’s bloodshed shocked a country largely unaccustomed to deadly bouts of mass violence.

Hours later, however, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said its “investigation has determined” the suspect, Myles Sanderson, 30, “is not located in the community” of the reserve and that authorities were continuing to search for him.

Sanderson remained at large and possibly injured, police said after investigators on Monday found his accused accomplice and older brother, Damien Sanderson, 31, dead in a grassy area of the James Smith Cree Nation.

The pair are suspected of killing 10 people and wounding 18 others in a stabbing rampage in the James Smith Cree reserve and nearby village of Weldon, roiling an indigenous community of 3,400 people in one of the deadliest attacks in Canada’s modern history. read more

Among the surviving victims, 10 remained hospitalized as of Tuesday afternoon, seven listed in stable condition and three in critical, health authorities said.

The Regina police chief, Evan Bray, said late Monday the search for Sanderson was focused in that city, but in a videotaped Twitter update posted on Tuesday said the manhunt had “expanded into the province.”

The direction appeared to shift back to the vicinity of the crime scene earlier Tuesday as the RCMP in Saskatchewan issued an emergency alert saying its officers were responding to reports of a “possible sighting” of the suspect on the James Smith Cree reserve.

The alert, which initially warned local residents to shelter in place as a precaution, was updated three hours later to say Sanderson was not found there, that his whereabouts remained unknown, and the public should “take appropriate precautions.”

MOTIVES UNCLEAR

Authorities offered no possible motive for the attacks. Police said some victims appeared to have been targeted, while others were apparently random. (Graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/3cKaBP0)

Some First Nation leaders have linked the killings to drug use, but police have not cited drugs or alcohol as factors.

The stabbings stirred “immeasurable stress and panic” in the community, leaders from a group of 74 First Nations in Saskatchewan said in a statement on Monday, urging the public to come forward with any relevant information.

Ivor Wayne Burns, a resident of the James Smith Cree, said the Sanderson brothers belonged to First Nations communities and were under the…