Emails show a specialized RCMP team was not immediately available to respond to a stabbing rampage and manhunt in Saskatchewan because of contract negotiations.
Eleven people were killed and 17 were injured as 32-year-old Myles Sanderson moved from home to home on the James Smith Cree Nation and in the nearby village of Weldon just over a year ago.
Documents obtained under freedom of information laws show Ottawa’s Emergency Response Team-Special Activities Group (ERT-SAG) was initially offered to help Saskatchewan Mounties.
But an email from Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore, the commanding officer of the Saskatchewan RCMP, says the team was not available as it was “in between contracts.”
RCMP headquarters says in an email that the team was deployed at approximately 7:00 a.m. on Sept. 4 but would not say how long it had been delayed.
“The sole ERT-SAG resource we requested was an asset that assists in locating individuals, which was not immediately available,” read a statement from the RCMP. “It did later deploy from Ottawa to Saskatchewan to assist in the search for Myles Sanderson; it wasn’t directly involved in his arrest on September 7.”
RCMP were also joined by other emergency response teams from Alberta and Ottawa.
“Hundreds of officers and employees from Saskatchewan RCMP – as well as other RCMP divisions, municipal police forces and public safety partners – worked tirelessly to investigate the homicides and restore public safety in the aftermath of this tragedy. As part of our response, we also used many advanced policing technologies,” read the statement.
The RCMP said they remain committed to providing all information they are able to about the investigation, while respecting the integrity of the upcoming coroner’s inquest.
The National Police Federation, the union representing RCMP officers, says it cannot comment.
James Smith Cree Nation Chief Wally Burns says he still gets very emotional looking back on the mass killing.
He says it would be a travesty if there were any delay in resources that could have stopped the killer.