RCMP Release Internal Review on James Smith Cree Mass Stabbing Tragedy

A tactical armoured RCMP vehicle drives past a police roadblock set up at James Smith Cree Nation, Sask., on Sept. 6, 2022. The Canadian Press/Heywood Yu

An internal police review says Saskatchewan RCMP responded in an appropriate amount of time to a mass killing and manhunt in September 2022, and the first dispatch call “could not have been streamlined more than it already was.”

The report found no “underlying circumstances that significantly impeded” the police response to the scene, where one man terrorized the community, leaving nearly a dozen dead.

“The Review Team did not identify any common underlying circumstance that significantly impeded the RCMP’s ability to manage the response to the JSCN/Weldon event,” the report said. “At the same time, certain areas for growth were identified with the underlying purpose of enhancing responses to future, similar situations.”

The document looks at the RCMP’s response to the stabbings by Myles Sanderson that left 11 people dead and 17 others injured in the James Smith Cree Nation and nearby village of Weldon. Sanderson was taken into custody three days after the killings and died within an hour of his arrest from a cocaine overdose.

James Smith Cree Nation had raised concerns that officers should have responded faster to the stabbing rampage, but the report concluded the response time was appropriate and the first call for dispatch “could not have been streamlined more than it already was.”

The report says the situation unfolded quickly after the first report of the attacks reached the Melfort RCMP detachment before 6 a.m. on Sept. 4, 2022.

One officer was there but had to wait for his partner to arrive at the station, and the two left nine minutes later to respond to the call. It took them 28 minutes to arrive.

The RCMP started up its division emergency operations centre, which included senior management based in Regina; however, the report says it was sometimes not clear who was in charge.

Communication lapses were found during the manhunt for Sanderson, including on Sept. 7 when Mounties were chasing him while he was driving a stolen truck and two commanders decided to force the vehicle off the road. They did not inform another commander who was in charge of overseeing tactics.

The report notes that the move was justified as it would have taken too long to bring everyone up to speed at such a crucial moment, although it said division emergency operations could have clearly communicated that it had overarching authority at the time.

Air support also struggled with communication lapses, including a moment on Sept. 7 when Sanderson was spotted in the town of Wakaw while all aircraft were being refuelled.

“This caused a delay at a critical time and perhaps highlighted one of the key issues during this incident,” the report says.

It could be addressed by having a flight coordinator to manage pilots, said the report.

Some call centre tips on Sanderson’s whereabouts did not reach decision-makers, the report said. In response, the RCMP said it will in future have a criminal analyst and major crimes investigator in its call centre.

Supt. Joshua Graham, head of the Saskatchewan RCMP major crimes unit, said the investigation included a lot of moving parts and was at times chaotic.

“You’re only a human being and can only take so much information at one time,” he said.

In total, there were 36 recommendations that the RCMP responded to in the document released on June 6. Many of them focused on a lack of resources and officers, as well as information and tools for frontline officers.

Chief Superintendent Ted Munro said that while he was “extremely proud” of the police response to the incident, he acknowledged there was an opportunity to learn from the recommendations.

“Internal reviews are essential to learning from our response to major events as well as understanding where we excelled and where there is room for improvement in our actions,” Mr. Munro said in the report.

The RCMP also released its response to recommendations made in two separate coroner inquests following the tragedy.

First Coroner Inquest

The first coroner’s inquest, which examined the deaths in the community, had 15 findings, eight of which were for the RCMP, the document said.

Among the recommendations was that photos in the police database be kept up to date, something the RCMP said it agreed with and was implementing.

Several inquest recommendations covered issues of staffing, with the report saying there must be more officers on specialized teams, like the drug enforcement team and traffic division. The RCMP said it has a roughly 30 percent vacancy rate and is working on filling more roles.

“Current projections are for 1,280 new RCMP applicants to attend training during the 2024-2025 fiscal year, followed by 1,600 new applicants for each 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 fiscal years. If successful, this forecasted recruiting increase will afford the division the opportunity to begin replenishing its resource base across all programs and business lines,” the RCMP said.

It was also recommended that RCMP officers connect with community leaders in the James Smith Cree Nation to develop and work on community safety plans together. The RCMP said that is already happening.

Updated “most wanted” lists should be circulated among all RCMP detachments in the province, according to the inquest report.

The RCMP said it was introducing a procedural change to see this happen, adding that as of March, lists of the most violent offenders in a detachment area are given to the detachment commander.

While the report recommended that repeat offenders of domestic violence receive more attention, the RCMP said that poses difficulties.

“It is important to note that data collection for these processes is labour intensive and is not without limitations,” the RCMP said. “New processes will be examined to enhance prioritization efforts and the ability to access the required data.”

Second Coroner Inquest

A second coroner inquest examined RCMP activities in the death of Myles Sanderson, the man suspected of the attacks. It included three recommendations for the RCMP that included:

• Training officers in the Precision Immobilization Technique (PIT) for stopping a fleeing vehicle
• Reviewing the policy and criteria for high-speed chases
• Additional training for vehicle extraction during arrests

The RCMP said it is working to incorporate the recommendations into its training and practices.

The Canadian Press contributed to this article.