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Just hours after he was captured following a four-day manhunt, Myles Sanderson died Wednesday.
The RCMP arrested Sanderson just after 3:30 p.m., forcing the stolen vehicle he was driving off Highway 11 south of Rosthern.
During a media conference Wednesday evening, Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore — the commanding officer of the Saskatchewan RCMP — said Sanderson died shortly after he was pulled from the vehicle.
“Shortly after his arrest, he went into medical distress,” Blackmore told reporters. “Nearby EMS were called by police to attend the scene and he was transported to hospital in Saskatoon. He was pronounced deceased at the hospital.”
Blackmore said officers performed life-saving measures before paramedics took Sanderson to hospital by ambulance. Asked if Narcan was used in case of a possible overdose, Blackmore said she couldn’t address what happened at the scene.
“I can’t speak to the specific manner of death,” she said when asked if Sanderson had died of an overdose. “That’s going to be part of the autopsy that will be conducted.”
Blackmore said the RCMP has asked the Saskatoon Police Service and the Saskatchewan Incident Response Team to conduct an independent external investigation into the circumstances. The Ministry of Justice also will be probing the incident.
Sanderson, 32, was the prime suspect in 10 murders that happened Sunday, with nine deaths occurring on the James Smith Cree Nation and one in Weldon. There also were 18 people hurt in the rampage.
Blackmore said autopsies on the victims are to be completed by the end of this week, but the results of those examinations won’t be released.
Sanderson was facing three counts of first-degree murder and one count each of attempted murder and break and enter.
His brother, Damien Sanderson, also was charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and break and enter. But Damien was found dead Monday on the James Smith Cree Nation.
Blackmore said Wednesday that Damien remains a suspect in the murders.
Blackmore laid out a timeline for the events, starting with the first report of a stabbing on the James Smith Cree Nation on Sunday at 5:40 a.m.
The manhunt for Sanderson stretched from that First Nation to Regina, after police in the Queen City got a tip that the vehicle Sanderson reportedly was in had been seen on Arcola Avenue. That investigation didn’t locate Sanderson.
“The information that we received on Sunday was still believed to be credible information,” Blackmore said. “We can’t say one way or the other at this point in time whether he was here.
“We’re hoping to piece together a timeline of where he was since Sunday, but again, without him being alive at this point in time, some pieces of that may not be able to be pieced together.”
The RCMP launched a ground and aerial search for Sanderson on the James Smith Cree Nation on Tuesday after reports of a possible sighting there, but those searches didn’t find any trace of the fugitive, either.
On Wednesday, the Mounties got a 911 call saying Sanderson was standing outside a residence northeast of Wakaw armed with a knife. He stole a Chevrolet Avalanche, but didn’t hurt the homeowner.
An emergency alert was sent out around 2:50 p.m., and Blackmore said that between then and 3:35 p.m., the Mounties got more than 20 calls about the stolen vehicle.
The truck was spotted by a Rosthern RCMP officer, who clocked it doing 150 kilometres per hour as it headed west towards Rosthern.
Eric Willie said he saw RCMP officers speeding south as he left his home in Rosthern. A few minutes later, Willie passed the scene on Highway 11 where RCMP officers were taking Sanderson into custody.
From the other side of the highway. Traffic both ways still stop and start as officers redirect. pic.twitter.com/EwZmYsO5Us
— Lisa Schick (@LMSchickler) September 7, 2022
“I saw him laughing, like he was probably giving the police a hard time for catching him or whatever,” Willie said. “He was probably having his two cents worth of laughing and joking and maybe thinking — I don’t know what he’s thinking when you’re laughing being arrested after hurting so many people and killing people.”
Jordan Brandon posted a video of the arrest on Facebook.
WARNING: This video contains strong language.
https://www.facebook.com/Skauge18/videos/2299948663486700
A Twitter user named Russ Diabo posted a picture of the arrest.
Myles Sanderson arrested! pic.twitter.com/BHseiWYFX5
— Russ Diabo (@RussDiabo) September 7, 2022
Blackmore said investigators don’t know where Sanderson was going, but his speed was indicative of someone who was trying to escape.
“We don’t take pursuits lightly,” she said. “There has to be some significant risk to the public and that’s exactly what we felt today, that it warranted a pursuit.
“We were able to connect with that vehicle, remove it from the road and return some sense of safety to the drivers on the road.”
Just hours later, Sanderson was dead, leaving victims’ families without an answer as to why he and his brother went on their rampage.
“Unfortunately, now that Myles is deceased, we may never have an understanding of that motivation,” Blackmore said. “We’ve conducted 120 interviews to this point (and) there’s more that we have to do, but witnesses and people around him only have so much information.
“His motivation may at this time and forever only be known to Myles.”
Blackmore said investigators sifted through tips from across Western Canada during the investigation, and completed more than 400 investigative tasks with the help of human and technological resources from as far away as Ottawa.
She was in Weldon and on the James Smith Cree Nation on Wednesday to visit with people affected by the tragedy — and now she hopes they can start the healing process.
“People were saying, ‘I haven’t slept. I can’t sleep. I can’t close my eyes. Every time I close my eyes, I hear a noise and is that him? Is he coming back?’ ” Blackmore said. “I hope that this brings them some sense of closure in that they can rest easy tonight knowing that Myles Sanderson is no longer a threat to them.”
