Man killed by police fatally stabbed uncle, cousin, aunt’s boyfriend

AKULIVIK, Que. — A man who lived 34 years in the remote Quebec Inuit community of Akulivik, where three people were stabbed to death on the weekend, calls it the “scariest and bravest” town he’s known.

“There’s so much anger there,” David Qaqutuk, a manager with the regional landholding corporation, said in a Facebook messenger interview.

“I’ve seen so much things happening while growing up,” he added, detailing crimes including rape and murder.

The provincial coroner’s office formally identified the victims Monday as Eli Qinuajuak, 32, Lucassie Anautak, 36, and Putulik Anautak, 12.

The coroner also identified the suspect shot and killed by Kativik Regional Police in Akulivik as Illutak Anautak, 19, a relative of the deceased.

Qaqutuk said the tragedy has shaken the community of about 600, located on a peninsula jutting into Hudson Bay.

In a statement, the province’s independent investigations bureau said police intercepted the suspect as he was preparing to enter a fourth residence while armed with a knife.

It said police fired to stop the suspect from entering and then fired a fatal shot when he began to move toward the officers.

While authorities have not made links among the four dead, residents in the town have said two of the three people stabbed to death were an uncle and a cousin of the suspect and that the third victim was a longtime boyfriend of one of his aunts.

Illutak Anautak had dealt with the slaying of his mother and the suicide of an older brother in recent years, Qaqutuk said.

Two people injured during Anautak’s attacks are expected to survive, police said.