Alleged 911 calls in James Smith Cree Nation tragedy investigated

Alleged 911 calls were investigated over the weekend after a witness told the provincial coroner’s inquest she tried to warn RCMP of illegal activity happening on James Smith Cree Nation on the morning of the 2022 mass killings.

Damien Sanderson’s wife Skye Sanderson testified on Thursday, claiming she made several 911 calls on a friend’s phone between 1:50 a.m. and 3 a.m. on Sept. 4, 2022 telling RCMP her husband and his brother Myles were harassing the community.

1:10 Alleged 911 calls in James Smith Cree Nation killings investigated

Myles went on to stab and kill 11 people that morning and injure 17 others along his rampage.

“They just seemed annoyed with my calls,” Skye testified.

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The 911 calls alleged by Skye were news to those sitting in on the inquest, as they weren’t mentioned in RCMP testimony earlier in the week.

Melfort RCMP Staff Sgt. Robin Zentner told the inquest earlier in the week that the first 911 call on Sept. 4 was from Martin Moostoos on James Smith Cree Nation around 5:40 a.m.

Zentner was recalled to the inquest Monday morning after a weekend of investigation into Skye’s claims.

Skye claimed her calls were made from the phone of a friend, a man from James Smith Cree Nation she was with the evening of Sept. 3 and morning of Sept. 4.

This weekend, she provided RCMP with a phone number she believed belonged to the man, but it didn’t match the number RCMP had on record for him.

“She said she’s not sure, but that could have been the phone number that she called 911 from,” Zentner said.

After investigating phone records from Sask. 911, Zentner confirmed no calls were made from that number or the one on RCMP file on the morning of Sept. 4.

Text messages from Skye’s phone and previous interviews said her friend didn’t have a working phone the weekend of the stabbing as it was accidentally run over.

Zentner expanded his investigation to include all of the 911 complaints that came into the detachment on the morning of Sept. 4.

“Not one of those complaints is associated to Myles Sanderson, Damien Sanderson, Skye Sanderson,” Zentner said.

The only complaint call on record from Skye, according to Zentner, is one made at 4:03 a.m. on Sept. 3, reporting that her husband had stolen her vehicle and was driving drunk and high around the First Nation.