Myles Sanderson, the second suspect wanted in the stabbing spree that claimed 10 lives in Saskatchewan, Canada, has died in an apparent suicide after four-day manhunt.
After his brother, Damien who is 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.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police initially announced that the man, Myles Sanderson, had been captured on a highway near the town of Rosthern, Saskatchewan, at about 3:30 p.m.
But at a news conference about four and a half hours later, Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore of the mounted police in Saskatchewan said that Mr. Sanderson had gone into “medical distress” shortly after his arrest and was taken to a hospital in the nearby city of Saskatoon, where he was pronounced dead.
The 30-year-old died of self-inflicted injuries soon after being taken into custody on Wednesday afternoon, 7 September, near Rosthern, Saskatchewan, officials said.
Sanderson 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.
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.
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.
Assistant Commissioner Blackmore said the death of Mr. Sanderson meant the motive behind the rampage might remain a mystery.
“His motivation may at this time, and forever, only be known to Myles,” she said.
The news of his arrest and then his death came on the same day that the authorities released the names of the victims killed on Sunday.
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.