Search continues for suspected killers
False alarms and fraying nerves mounting in Northern Manitoba
A helicopter cuts through the air as it hovers above a house in York Landing, an isolated town in Manitoba with almost 450 inhabitants. A person with a shaky hand watches from a distance, pointing their camera phone at police vehicles with flashing lights as officers use K9 units to search the area for 19-year-old Kam McLeod and 18-year-old Bryer Schmegelsky.
“Is that them? Gunshots heard,” says the person behind the camera.
Then, a huge gasp. “There they are,” said the person recording. “They found one.”
It was eventually deleted, being dubbed a false alarm and another example of frayed nerves in the community.
But the 30 second video quickly circulated on Sunday through private messages on social media before being shared publicly, where reporters from around the world were ravenous to get their hands on it.
“Despite reports — there is no one in custody at this time,” read a tweet from RCMP Manitoba before sending out another that read “please do not disclose officer locations by posting photos of our officers in the community to social media.”
While the RCMP and military continue to scour for the suspects and stave off internet sleuths, residents in Gillam and York Landing, Man. — the last two places where the alleged killers were spotted — say the global attention has shaken up daily life.
“It feels like a huge invasion, we’re at the end of the road,” said a Gillam resident who asked not to be named.
“It’s pretty quiet now, you don’t see too many kids outside. People are a bit on edge.”
Employees from the local co-op grocery store in Gillam were instructed by supervisors to not speak about the manhunt and residents have kept to themselves since a week ago, when the suspected murderers were spotted in the small, working-class, hydro town with about 1,250 people.
“It’s just a small community that got put in this situation,” said an employee at Power Town Auto in Gillam who asked not to be named.
“A couple weeks ago you could leave your keys in the car overnight and they’d still be there the next day … now everyone is locking their doors where they never used to.”
Several surrounding Indigenous communities have also felt the magnitude of the investigation, according to a member of the Bear Clan Patrol, an Indigenous-led neighbourhood watch group that was invited by the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs to help ease residents’ fears.
“Up here, all the towns and communities, they look like ghost towns. Like, everyone’s inside. There’s a high level of stress, anxiety and fearfulness because they’re being kept in their houses,” Wade Taylor, a Bear Clan Patrol volunteer from Winnipeg, told the Canadian Press.
“Quite a few people have even left the area altogether, kind of waiting for this to blow over.”
Taylor said almost everyone he talked to shared their thoughts about the search, which does not include the Bear Clan Patrol. No one thought the fugitives were in their own community — they believed they were more likely to be in one of the communities nearby, Taylor said.
On Sunday, the RCMP sent units to York Landing, about 90 km away from Gillam by plane, after reports of two men in the area who matched the suspect descriptions.
Edgar Moose, a security guard at the York Landing Nursing Station, says local authorities are keeping the reserve “locked down.”
“They’ve been patrolling all night,” he said.
“We’re all taking extra precautions… they’re knocking on doors… everyone has to stay in their houses.”
The RCMP says the situation is ongoing and all possible resources are in York Landing to “safely apprehend two individuals matching the description of the suspects.”
An official statement from Chief Leroy Constant of the York Factory Cree Nation in York Landing urged everyone to remain indoors with windows and doors locked, mentioning 24-hour patrols in the remote community.
McLeod and Schmegelsky, from Port Alberni, B.C., face a second-degree murder charge in the death of University of British Columbia professor Leonard Dyck and are also suspects in the fatal shootings of Australian Lucas Fowler and his American girlfriend Chynna Deese.
A burned-out Toyota RAV4 the teens were travelling in was found near Gillam last week.
McLeod is described as 6’4″, about 170 pounds, with dark brown hair and facial hair and brown eyes. while Schmegelsky is described as 6’4″, about 170 pounds, with sandy brown hair, but authorities warn they may have changed their appearance.