‘Smug, cocky and arrogant:’ Saskatchewan inquest hears of mass killer’s arrest

SASKATOON — An RCMP officer who helped capture a mass killer on the run after a stabbing rampage in Saskatchewan has told an inquest the man was smug during his arrest.

Const. Bill Rowley says Myles Sanderson was laughing as police placed him in handcuffs.

“Smug, cocky and arrogant,” Rowley testified Wednesday of Sanderson’s demeanour during the arrest on the side of Highway 11 near Rosthern on Sept. 7, 2022.

Sanderson had been on the run for several days when police caught up to him. Three days earlier, he had kicked in doors and attacked people on the James Smith Cree Nation and in the nearby village of Weldon, killing 11 and injuring 17.

Jurors have been shown video from RCMP dashboard cameras of a high-speed police pursuit.

Rowley told jurors at the coroner’s inquest that Sanderson drove at more than 160 kilometres per hour in the wrong direction on Highway 11 as he tried to escape pursuing police officers.

“It was a very dramatic, unfolding situation,” Rowley said.

The chase ended after a Mountie used her vehicle to ram the truck Sanderson was driving. Sanderson lost control and went into a ditch.

Officers descended on the truck, and Rowley testified Wednesday he saw Sanderson move his hand toward his mouth.

Const. Travis Adema, who was among the responding officers, said it’s possible the movement was Sanderson ingesting drugs. But “at that time, it could have been anything,” Adema added.

Rowley wasn’t sure what was going to happen as he opened the driver’s door.

“I was under the expectation that (Sanderson) was coming out to finish some unfinished business,” Rowley said. “I thought it was going to turn into a shootout.”

Rowley and another officer grabbed Sanderson’s arms and pulled him out of the vehicle.

The inquest was also shown video of Sanderson, as he was being searched, asking officers how many people he had killed.

The 32-year-old also told Mounties they should have shot him.

The video shows Sanderson begin to convulse. He is placed on the ground, and officers ask whether he has taken any drugs.

“I could feel his body tense up and start to shake,” said Rowley, who testified he saw Sanderson’s eyes roll back in his head and blood start to flow from his mouth and nose. “I knew it wasn’t good.”

The video shows officers, then a paramedic, doing chest compressions on Sanderson. The killer was taken to hospital in Saskatoon, where he was pronounced dead.

A forensic pathologist testified Tuesday that Sanderson had overdosed on cocaine.

Testing determined he had 6.5 milligrams of cocaine per litre of blood in his system. A doctor who did the post-mortem toxicology tests on Sanderson testified that the level of cocaine in his system was “one of the highest levels I’ve ever seen in my career.”

Dr. Jennifer Billinsky said the average level of cocaine in the blood in a fatal overdose that she has seen is 0.6 milligrams per litre, meaning Sanderson had more than 10 times that amount in his blood.

On Wednesday afternoon, RCMP Const. Sean Nave — who initially was trained as a medic and who worked with Regina EMS before becoming a Mountie — testified that he had put down a spike belt in hopes of stopping Sanderson as he headed south on Highway 11.

Nave soon discovered Sanderson’s vehicle had been immobilized, so Nave started heading toward the scene. He testified he was thinking about Const. Heidi Marshall, who had clipped the stolen Chevy Avalanche and sent it into the ditch.

Nave said he knew Marshall was a mom and was worried about her.

RCMP Const. Heidi Marshall hugs Eddie Head, the James Smith Cree Nation’s justice and policing director, after her testimony Tuesday. (Lara Fominoff/650 CKOM)

After arriving at the scene, Nave made his way to Sanderson, who was in medical distress.

The constable testified he administered naloxone, but noticed Sanderson’s state didn’t change. As the pathologist testified Tuesday, naloxone wouldn’t have reversed the effects of cocaine since it’s meant for opioids.

Nave told jurors he couldn’t find a pulse in Sanderson’s neck. When advance care paramedics arrived, Nave relayed as much information to them as he could before beginning chest compressions.

Nave went to the ambulance with Sanderson and stayed in the back as it sped to Saskatoon. When the ambulance arrived at Royal University Hospital, medical staff took over.

Advanced care paramedic Nic Machan testified that CPR was done on Sanderson and he was given epinephrine along the way, with Machan saying it was a “typical” cardiac event. The paramedic added that if they had known Sanderson had overdosed on cocaine, it wouldn’t have changed their treatment.

Another advanced care paramedic, Calvin Heurer, told the jury Sanderson was hooked up to monitors inside the ambulance en route to RUH, but his heart was flatlining. Heurer added that when someone is flatlining, they can’t be shocked using cardioversion.

Heurer clarified that Sanderson was given six doses of epinephrine, but neither it nor chest compressions had any effect.

The inquest, which is scheduled to run until Friday in Saskatoon, is required under legislation because Sanderson died in police custody.

It’s to establish when and where Sanderson died and the cause of his death. The six-person jury may also provide recommendations.

A separate inquest into the massacre was held last month, examining each of the killings and issuing more than two dozen recommendations.

Kelly Geraldine Malone, The Canadian Press

— With files from 650 CKOM’s Lara Fominoff