Sask. coroner says public inquests will be held for stabbing victims, final suspect
CBC
WARNING: This story contains distressing details.
The Saskatchewan Coroners Service announced there will be a public inquest held into the deaths related to the mass stabbing in the province on Sept. 4, and a separate inquest into the death of suspect Myles Sanderson, who died shortly after being taken into police custody.
"With the suspect deceased, there will not be a public criminal trial. Without a public hearing of the facts, it will leave many questions unanswered from the families involved and the public pertaining to the circumstances leading to the deaths," said chief coroner Clive Weighill at a press conference Wednesday.
There were nine people killed on the James Smith Cree Nation and one man killed at his home in the nearby village of Weldon, Sask., on Sept. 4. Eighteen others were injured during the knife attacks.
Both of the men police identified as suspects are also dead.
Myles Sanderson, 32, died shortly after being brought into police custody. He was pronounced dead in hospital after going into what the RCMP described as medical distress.
According to a senior government official briefed on the matter by law enforcement, Sanderson died after consuming pills just before his arrest. Multiple police, government and health sources have told CBC News he consumed drugs before police took him into custody following a highway pursuit.
The chief coroner said that details on Sanderson's cause of death will not be released until next year at the public inquest.
However, Weighill also said that preliminary findings have ruled out external blunt force trauma.
Photographs and videos taken at the time of Sanderson's arrest show him standing up, held against an RCMP vehicle as officers detained him.
"Shortly after being arrested, he went into medical distress," said Rhonda Blackmore, commanding officer of Saskatchewan RCMP, at a news conference that followed Sanderson's death.
She would not answer whether Myles Sanderson overdosed, nor whether officers attempted CPR or used Narcan, an opioid overdose reversal medication.
"All life-saving measures, that we're capable of, were taken at that point in time until the arrival of EMS shortly thereafter," she said.
Last week, Blackmore said RCMP "look forward to providing further details once they have been confirmed."
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