The deadly attacks have left a peaceful, isolated community feeling like a war zone, according to residents who confronted the bodies and blood left in the path of the two armed suspects.
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“I lost a lot of family members [dimanche]. Bodies all over the reservation, some dead and many more badly stabbed and bleeding. It was a war zone,” says Michael Brett Burns on his Facebook page.
James Smith, a resident of the Cree Nation, survived the attack, unlike his former wife, Lana Head.
“The eyes of those who were attacked could not express all the pain and suffering they felt,” he says.
The Journal attempted to contact more than thirty people living in the Cree Nation or in the small town of Weldon where the attacks took place. They all refused to allow media interviews out of respect for the families’ loss.
“Murderous Madness”
Dilly Bar, a young man from Saskatoon, lost his mother, who was said to have been killed trying to protect a boy.
“She was such an extraordinary woman. She never hated anyone. There is no explanation as to why these people decided to go on a killing spree. I hope justice is done soon,” Mr Bar said on social media.
Kirby Constant, a mother from Prince Albert, nearly 40 miles from the Cree Nation, says James Smith’s entire community is mourning this “senseless tragedy”.
“Pain, fear, sadness, grief, shock are words that don’t even describe the emotions I saw and felt,” she says.
Pastor Wilfred Sanderson, who works in the two Anglican churches in the Cree Nation, invited his congregation to pray after the attack during a live video on Facebook.
“Pray for your family, your community and everyone affected by these people. […] May God give us the strength to get through this together,” the man of the church concluded with tears in his eyes and shaking hands.
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