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Canadian police apprehend suspect in deadly mass stabbing

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

A four-day manhunt has come to an end. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police say they have apprehended Myles Sanderson. He's the fugitive they suspect of killing 10 people on Sunday across multiple locations in Saskatchewan, Canada. The suspect's brother, who's accused as a co-conspirator in the mass stabbing attack, was found dead earlier this week. Here with more is Bill Graveland, national correspondent for The Canadian Press. Welcome.

BILL GRAVELAND: Hello there.

CHANG: Hello. OK. So can you just remind us first of the scope of these killings? They took place in different locations.

GRAVELAND: All within a very short distance, probably a matter of miles, but there were 13 different areas that the attacks took place starting around 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning. And there were some places where one person was stabbed. There were others where family members were stabbed, no real rhyme nor reason to it. Police had said that they believe that some of the attacks were on purpose and some of them were not.

CHANG: OK.

GRAVELAND: So it has been a long four days. As you mentioned, the - Damien Sanderson, who was also a suspect in the killings, was found dead. Police at the time said that it was not self-inflicted and that Myles Sanderson was believed to have had injuries as well.

CHANG: Can you tell us a little more about...

GRAVELAND: Yesterday, they went...

CHANG: If I may just cut in, if you could tell us a little more...

GRAVELAND: Sure.

CHANG: ...About the manhunt - where did police eventually find the suspect?

GRAVELAND: Well, they had looked yesterday on the reserve. They sent several police cars. There was a rumor that he had been spotted where the stabbings happened - turned out not to be the case. This afternoon, there was one of the emergency alerts that the RCMP sends here that said that a white Chevrolet Avalanche had been stolen by a man armed with a knife. After that, one of my colleagues was on a road and saw a white truck traveling at high speed, followed by several RCMP vehicles. She followed, and when she got there, the truck was in the ditch and Myles Sanderson was in custody.

CHANG: Wow. Well, we only have about a minute and a half left, but we also did learn a bit more about the victims of this attack. Can you tell us a little bit about some of them?

GRAVELAND: Well, sure. The 10 victims, as you mentioned, they age - range in age from 23 to 78. Only one of them did not live on the reserve. There was a 14-year-old boy was one of the wounded. Actually, surprisingly, some of the family members were at the scene shortly after the arrest and had hugged the RCMP officers. And one of them, Brian Burns, whose wife and son were killed, said that it's now time that they can start to heal.

CHANG: And as far as we know so far, police have not said anything about motive here. Is that correct?

GRAVELAND: Nothing about motive - there is a news conference probably this evening when the RCMP sort of give some more details. Hopefully, it - they will shed some light on it. There was some speculation that it could have had something to do with a drug deal or the use of drugs. But at this point, we're still waiting, and we may have to wait until the actual trial to find out for sure.

CHANG: That is Bill Graveland, national correspondent for The Canadian Press. Thank you very much for joining us today.

GRAVELAND: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Ailsa Chang is an award-winning journalist who hosts All Things Considered along with Ari Shapiro, Audie Cornish, and Mary Louise Kelly. She landed in public radio after practicing law for a few years.
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Christopher Intagliata is an editor at All Things Considered, where he writes news and edits interviews with politicians, musicians, restaurant owners, scientists and many of the other voices heard on the air.