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Sunday two suspects went on a killing spree in a small town in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, killing at least 10 people and injuring about 15 more. The attack happened on a small Indigenous reservation that is home to the James Smith Cree Nation. It has a population of about 2,500 people. The violence also spread to a nearby town called Weldon which has a population of fewer than 200. The two suspects have been identified but have not been caught<\/a> but were spotted in a city 200 miles south from where the attack took place.<\/p>\n The suspects, identified by police as\u00a0<\/b>Damien Sanderson, 31, and Myles Sanderson, 30, remained at large Monday morning, more than 24 hours after authorities received the first reports about 5:40 a.m. local time Sunday of people being stabbed at the James Smith Cree Nation and in the nearby village of Weldon.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately the two males are still at large, this despite ongoing, relentless efforts through the night by both the RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] and the Regina Police Service to locate these two individuals,\u201d Evan Bray, the provincial capital\u2019s police chief, said in a\u00a0video<\/a> Monday morning\u2026<\/p>\n The men were believed t0 be traveling in a black Nissan Rogue crossover SUV after being spotted in Regina, about 200 miles to the south, shortly before midday Sunday, authorities said. They later said that the men may have changed their vehicle, and that their direction of travel was unknown.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The obvious question about the motive is one that police aren\u2019t saying anything about so far. However the AP is reporting one Indigenous leader suggested it was connected to drugs<\/a>.<\/p>\n Authorities have said some of the victims were targeted and others appeared to have been chosen at random in a series of attacks on the James Smith Cree Nation and in the town of Weldon in Saskatchewan province. They have given no motive for the crimes, which also left 15 people wounded \u2014 but a senior Indigenous leader suggested drugs were somehow involved\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cIt is horrific what has occurred in our province,\u201d said Rhonda Blackmore, assistant commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Saskatchewan.<\/p>\n Police got their first call about a stabbing at 5:40 a.m. on Sunday, and within minutes heard about several more. In all, dead or wounded people were found at 13 different locations on the sparsely populated reserve and in the town, Blackmore said. James Smith Cree Nation is about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from Weldon.<\/p>\n She couldn\u2019t provide a motive, but the chief of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations suggested the stabbings could be drug-related.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the destruction we face when harmful illegal drugs invade our communities, and we demand all authorities to take direction from the chiefs and councils and their membership to create safer and healthier communities for our people,\u201d said Chief Bobby Cameron.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n We\u2019ll have to wait for more information but the drug connection doesn\u2019t make a lot of sense to me so far. Rival drug gangs might be inclined to attack and kill the competition but would have no reason to kill people at random. And having one person using drugs go crazy and kill people is a possibility but in this case it was two people working together.<\/p>\n The NY Times isn\u2019t offering any clear statements about the suspect\u2019s motive but does note that violence against indigenous people has been a major topic in Canada for the last few years<\/a>.<\/p>\n Canada\u2019s Indigenous communities have been at the forefront of\u00a0a global reckoning<\/a>\u00a0of the abuse and assimilation brought about by colonialism. Their decades-long movement has received heightened attention in recent years, partly because of grim new discoveries about the extent of violence and discrimination.<\/p>\n Last year, an Indigenous community announced that it had found\u00a0a suspected mass grave at a former residential school in British Columbia<\/a>, where it said there was evidence of 215 children having been buried. The church-run school was part of a system designed to assimilate the children, forcibly erasing their Indigenous languages and cultures.<\/p>\n Other discoveries followed. In the province of Saskatchewan, the suspected remains of 751 people, mostly Indigenous children, were\u00a0found at the site of another former boarding school<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n\n
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