Second suspect in Canada stabbing spree that killed 10 people ”commits suicide” while in custody

The second suspect wanted in the stabbing spree on an indigenous reservation in Canada has died in an apparent suicide shortly after his arrest following a massive four-day manhunt.

Myles Sanderson, 30, died of self-inflicted injuries soon after being taken into custody on Wednesday afternoon, September 7, near Rosthern, Saskatchewan, officials said.

Sanderson surrendered to police and was taken away alive in an ambulance after a highway pursuit in which police rammed his vehicle, a stolen pickup truck, off the road, according to an official familiar with the case.

The official said the fugitive’s fatal injuries were self-inflicted, but he didn’t have further details on whether the injuries were inflicted while police moved in on his disabled vehicle to take him into custody, or after the arrest. The time of death is also not clear.

After his brother, an accomplice, was found dead on Monday, Sanderson had been the only remaining suspect at large in the Sunday rampage that left 10 dead and 18 injured on the James Smith Cree Nation reservation. 

Sanderson was taken into custody at around 3.30pm, soon after an emergency alert warned of a man with a knife traveling in a stolen white Chevy Avalanche in Wakaw, Saskatchewan.

Sanderson’s brother Damien, his alleged accomplice in the massacre was found dead Monday, of injuries cops say were likely not self-inflicted. 

The RCMP said they were looking into whether Damien may have been killed by his brother.

‘It is an investigative avenue that we are following up on, but we can’t say that definitively at this point’ an RCMP spokesperson said. 

Meanwhile, all ten victims of the shocking stabbing spree have been identified.  

The victims are Lana Head, 49, a mother of two; Christian Head, 54; Gregory Burns, 28; Gregory’s aunt Gloria Lydia Burns, 61, an addictions counselor who was killed responding to an emergency stabbing call; Gloria’s sister-in-law Bonnie Burns, 48; Thomas Burns, 23; Carol Burns, 46; Earl Burns, a Canadian military veteran; Robert Sanderson, 49; and Wesley Petterson, 77. 

The attacks were among the deadliest in Canada’s modern history.