Body of one Canada stabbing suspect found Monday

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Saskatchewan said Monday night that one of the two men suspected in a wave of deadly stabbings had been found dead of wounds “not believed to be self-inflicted.”

After more than a day of a manhunt that put three provinces on alert, the police said that Damien Sanderson, 31, had been found dead before noon on Monday in a grassy area near a house being investigated on the Cree Nation reserve. And they said his brother, Myles Sanderson, 30, had possibly been wounded.

The horror began at 5:40 a.m. on Sunday, when the police received a report of a stabbing at a sleepy, rural Indigenous reserve in Saskatchewan. By the time the rampage was over, hours later, the police said that 10 people had been killed and 18 injured – some apparently chosen at random – in a killing spree that has shaken the community and the country.

While details about the men and their motive remained murky, the police said that Myles Sanderson had a long criminal record, and was considered armed and dangerous. The police said they were investigating how Damian Sanderson had died, including whether Myles Sanderson had killed his brother.

Canadian authorities have told residents in the James Smith Cree Nation and the nearby village of Weldon to shelter at home as they expanded the search almost 200 miles south to Regina, the capital of Saskatchewan.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement that the two men had been charged with first -degree, attempted murder and break and enter.

In a country that prides itself on its civility, the knife attack was one of the worst in recent memory, and the brutality of the crime was reverberating on Monday. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada said he was “shocked and devastated by the horrific attacks.”

“As Canadians,” he added. “We mourn with everyone affected by this tragic violence.”

“Our hearts break for all those impacted,” said Chief Bobby Cameron of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, the provincial federation of Indigenous groups. He called on the authorities to “create safer and healthier communities for our people.”

Canada has been grappling with violence against Indigenous people, which has received increased attention in recent years. That is partly because of grim new discoveries about the extent of the violence and endemic discrimination, including a discovery last year of suspected graves at former residential schools.

The police were investigating 13 crime scenes, and said they believed that the suspects had targeted some victims while others were attacked randomly.

James Smith Cree Nation and the village of Weldon, where the attacks took place, are in central Saskatchewan, near where farmlands in the south of the province meet the forested areas of the north. The James Smith Cree Nation has 3,412 members, with nearly 2,000 living on its reserve, according to its website. It is about 30 miles east of Prince Albert, the third-largest city in Saskatchewan, with about 37,000 residents.

A dangerous persons alert was expanded in the afternoon to the provinces of Manitoba and Alberta. The suspects were believed to be traveling in a black Nissan Rogue, according to authorities, who said a driver had spotted the vehicle at 11:45 a.m. in Regina. But the authorities had cautioned that the men may have changed their vehicle, and their direction of travel was unknown.