The shooting occurred Friday.
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“If you know about this deadly mix of hopelessness and abuse and violence, and drugs and alcohol abuse, and racism and poverty, really it’s a ideal recipe for something like this to happen”, said Mark Totten, who spent five years working with indigenous youth in Saskatchewan, and is now a criminal justice professor at Humber College in Toronto. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Supt.
St. Germaine says 1 year old Marie Janvier, a teacher’s aide, died at the high school, while 35 year old teacher Adam Wood died in hospital.
Four people were killed and several injured after the shootings at La Loche Community School and another location.
Don Herman, an uncle of two of the victims, holds a rosary as police investigate the shooting scene at the La Loche Community School on Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016.
Police tape remained across the front entrance to the school.
Image: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks about a Saskatchewan school shooting during a news conference in Davos, January 22, 2016.
They say they were able to arrest an armed suspect after a chase through the halls. He is due in court next week.
The alleged shooter is in police custody, Trudeau said.
Officers said they were called to reports of a “serious situation” at the school, which is in a remote, impoverished area, roughly 600 km (375 miles) from the central city of Saskatoon, shortly after 1pm local time on Friday.
La Loche is a mainly aboriginal community of about 3,000 people. It’s a part of changing times.
Residents lit candles and placed flowers at a makeshift memorial outside the school.
Mass shootings are rare, however, even in Canada’s most desperate corners. Deegan Park, her boyfriend of three years, said he would have given up the rest of his life just to spend another year with her.
“I grew up not a good guy, but she turned me right”, Park told The Canadian Press. “She was a charming, sweet young woman and I loved her so much”, Patrick Wagenaar wrote on Facebook.
Acting mayor Kevin Janvier said the tragedy has hurt everyone in La Loche. “I’m just so sad”. She was kind and patient with children and talked about getting her teaching degree someday.
The Star Phoenix newspaper quoted a student who said he was returning from lunch when shots were fired at the school.
His family in Ontario said he was an adventurer with a passion for life who made people laugh.
“‘Run, bro, run!'” Noel Desjarlais-Thomas, 16, recalled his friends saying to him as they fled La Loche’s junior and senior high school. “There’s a shotgun! There’s a shotgun!” “I thought the kids were just playing around or something, like a locker slamming and stuff”.
“The shooting hits close to home for me as my family members attend the school”, Joliebois said. Some said they ran for the doors when they saw a shotgun, while others hid in gym dressing rooms for hours.
“The elementary school is also under a lock down which will not be lifted until we hear that it is safe from the La Loche RCMP”.
Wall promised that necessary crisis support and counselling services would be provided to the school and the community.
Bruce Heyman, the USA ambassador to Canada, sent a message of condolence.
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Still, indigenous communities will ask hard questions about gun security after the shooting, said Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations Chief Bobby Cameron, who represents more than 70 indigenous groups in the province. “While the lockdown was happening, you could just hear all these gunshots getting closer, [then] getting distant”.
