Deliberations begin at inquest into death of Myles Sanderson
As the six-person jury began deliberations following the final day of testimony at a coroner's inquest into the death of Myles Sanderson, the presiding coroner stressed the importance of what was said, heard and presented.
“Having the inquest is a very valuable and necessary public function, because it brings to the public's attention the circumstances surrounding deaths,” presiding coroner Robert Kennedy said to the jurors as he instructed them before deliberations.
Sanderson, 32, killed 11 people and injured 17 others during a stabbing rampage on James Smith Cree Nation and in the nearby community of Weldon on Sept. 4, 2022. He died in police custody on Sept. 7, 2022 from what was determined to be a cocaine overdose. He was caught after an extensive manhunt that ended in a high-speed chase near Rosthern.
The jury will make an official determination of what happened in this case, and may also make recommendations to prevent similar deaths from happening in the future.
SANDERSON A `MISSIONORIENTED OFFENDER': PSYCHOLOGIST
The inquest's final witness was Dr. Matt Logan, a psychologist and former RCMP officer, who conducted a post-mortem behavioural analysis on Sanderson — essentially, a “psychological autopsy” exploring Sanderson's actions in the days before his death, he said.
In Logan's opinion, Sanderson was a “mission-oriented offender,” intending to kill specific people who he felt were affiliated with the Terror Squad gang or who had harmed or wronged him in some way.
“It's not an impulsive act,” Logan said.
“It's targeted. It's goal-directed, and sometimes that reason is revenge, as it was in this case. ... A mission-oriented offender is someone who is well-prepared and intent on committing the crime, despite the risk to self or others.”
After killing his final victim in Weldon, Sanderson made camp in the Wakaw/crystal Springs area, and repeatedly broke into a woman's home to steal food, drinks and bedding. On Sept. 7, he broke into her home again, smashing through a window and breaking down a door, knife in hand, to get to her.
Sanderson wanted to take her vehicle, and asked the woman for cigarettes and water, as well. She gave him all three. But when he tried to take her with him, she refused.
Logan doesn't think Sanderson was trying to take the woman as a hostage:, Rather, he seemed to think that having someone with him might throw police off his trail.
Sanderson never physically attacked the woman. Logan said she wasn't one of the targets of his mission, and had given him most of what he asked for.
“He let somebody live — didn't harm anybody — so long as they gave him what he wanted,” he said.
SANDERSON'S THOUGHT PROCESS
Driving the stolen vehicle, Sanderson headed toward Saskatoon. Knowing what he knows now, Logan thinks Sanderson's mission was not over yet. But he was stopped and arrested before he could get to the city, and died minutes after his arrest at the side of the road.
After his death, Sanderson was found to have an extremely high level of cocaine in his system. It had been his “drug of choice” for years and “he used it considerably,” Logan said.
Sanderson's medical records from his time in the Saskatchewan Penitentiary also show a history of suicidal thoughts, and he told doctors he had tried to kill himself by “popping a bunch of pills” when he was 28.
Despite that, Logan would not call Sanderson's death a suicide.
“`Why waste good cocaine?'” Logan said, explaining his view of Sanderson's thought process.
“`If I'm going to go out, I'm going to go out my way.' In our belief, he was not taking the cocaine in order to die, but he didn't care whether he died our not . ... It is our belief that the cocaine toxicity was not an attempted suicide, but an accidental overdose.”