Shootings stun town
Teen arrested in deaths of two teachers, young brothers
LA LOCHE, SASK. — The grandfather of two boys killed in a shooting at a La Loche home Friday said he can’t believe his “two babies” are dead.
“They were my best friends,” Norman Fontaine said of the boys. “Never again, I guess.”
Dayne Fontaine, 17, and Drayden Fontaine, 13, have been identified as the victims.
Norman heard the news while driving out of La Loche Friday, and turned around his vehicle immediately.
He said the news is particularly hard on the boys’ grandmother.
A 17-year-old boy faces four counts of first-degree murder, seven counts of attempted murder and one count of unauthorized possession of a firearm in relation to a series of shooting that left four people dead in La Loche Friday.
RCMP Supt. Grant St. Germaine announced the charges at a news conference in La Loche Saturday afternoon.
The boy surrendered to police inside La Loche Community School, according to St. Germaine.
Family members have confirmed that teacher Adam Wood was killed in the school.
“Our family, Adam’s partner, friends and community are devastated by the news that Adam Wood was a victim in the La Loche shooting. He died January 22nd,” said a statement from Wood’s family on Saturday.
“Adam had just begun his teaching career in La Loche last September and was enjoying his time. He was quite an adventurer, had a passion for life and would often make you laugh until your stomach hurt,” it continued.
Multiple other victims in the school were injured, but details about the number of victims and the extent of their injuries were not available.
Alex Janvier was walking through the halls of La Loche Community School Friday when he heard a teacher yell, “Shooter in the school.”
Janvier, 15, ran back to his Grade 10 class, where fellow students and the teacher were already seated on the floor.
He closed the door and the teacher told him to move with them toward the centre of the room.
The teacher was texting the principal and telling the students to stay calm.
Janvier estimates that shots rang out, apparently just feet from their door, every 20 or 30 seconds, for a few minutes, before the shooting stopped. Someone then yelled that the RCMP had entered the school.
Janvier and the students then heard, “Stop, please! Stop!”
“This is something that you only see on TV most of the time.” -TEDDY CLARK
CLEARWATER RIVER DENE NATION CHIEF
Less than a minute later, police opened their classroom door and told them that the suspect had been apprehended.
In the hours after students were escorted out of the school, Janvier and his family — who live across from the school — have watched dozens of emergency vehicles converge on the school.
Outside the school Friday evening, a candlelight vigil was held. Across town, in one of the local halls, civic officials, RCMP officers and others met to come to terms with the situation.
Family members of Marie Janvier, the 23-year-old teacher killed in the shooting, can’t believe she’s gone.
“She was a really good storyteller. She was really charming. She had really good attention to detail,” Patrick Wagenaar said of his cousin Marie Janvier.
Fighting back tears, he said while he knew La Loche was a “tough town,” he never expected something so tragic would happen in the remote Dene community of 3,000 residents, about 600 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon.
Sandie Janvier said her cousin Marie Janvier was the “sweetest caring person,” and that she would never hurt anyone.
“Her smile will light up the room on the darkest day,” she said. “We lost a loving sister today.”
An eyewitness who was just returning from lunch when shots were fired said his friends ran past him, urging him to get out.
“Run, bro, run!” Noel Desjarlais-Thomas, 16, recalled his friends saying to him as they fled the Dene building, which houses students in Grades 7 to 12.
“There’s a shotgun! There’s a shotgun! They were just yelling to me. And then I was hearing those shots, too, so of course I started running.”
Desjarlais-Thomas, a Grade 10 student, said he believes one of his friends might be among the dead. He forwarded to The Canadian Press a screenshot of a chilling exchange that had taken place on social media a short time before the shooting.
“Just killed 2 ppl,” wrote the young man. “Bout to shoot ip the school.” “Why?” asked a friend. “Why?” The shooting shocked residents of La Loche.
“Right now, La Loche is devastated,” said an emotional Clearwater River Dene Nation Chief Teddy Clark.
“The community usually pulls together really strong in times like this … Both Clearwater and La Loche, a lot of people are in shock. This is something that you only see on TV most of the time.”
At a news conference, RCMP Chief Supt. Maureen Levy said investigators were at two locations: a home and the school.
After receiving a complaint about an active shooter at about 1 p.m., officers responded to the Dene building and “immediately began searching for the suspect.” At 1:47 p.m., a male was taken into custody outside the school. A firearm was seized.
School co-ordinator Norma Janvier said she was in her office when she heard gunshots.
“I didn’t know what was going on ... I thought the kids were just playing around or something, like a locker slamming and stuff,” she said.
She was going to check on the noise, but a teacher closed her office door, so Janvier stayed inside.
Levy believed some of the victims in the shooting were airlifted to Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, addressing the country in a nationally televised speech, said he wanted to “express both our sympathy and support” for those impacted and in the community and also thanked first responders, who he said “acted swiftly and bravely.
“Obviously this is every parent’s worst nightmare,” he added.