As the 17-year-old charged with murdering four people made his first court appearance, two First Nations leaders say the easy victim-perpetrator dynamic does not apply.
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He was taken into custody after police received an emergency call about “a person discharging a weapon in the community”, RCMP superintendent Maureen Levy said.
The teen charged in connection with Friday’s shooting that left four people dead in northern Saskatchewan is due to appear in court today.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commanding Officer Brenda Butterworth-Carr said when officers arrived at the school they saw the front door had been shot open.
A government official said the gunman first shot two boys who are related but not his siblings at a home before heading to the school on Friday.
Police also said they still don’t know the minor suspect’s motive and did not also disclose the gun use on the incident.
The acting mayor of La Loche and others have called for the school to be torn down and rebuilt.
Leonard Montgrand, the centre’s executive director, said there is significant demand for the small pool of jobs and training programs in La Loche, pointing to a recent federally funded heavy-equipment operator training program that drew more than 100 applications for just eight spots.
As an example of the community’s isolation, Fort MacMurray, Alta., which is only about 100 kilometres west of La Loche, requires a circuitous drive of almost 10 hours. It’s a part of changing times.
“We need more funding”.
Residents lighted candles and placed flowers at a makeshift memorial outside the school. Unlike in the United States, mass shootings are rare in Canada, where firearms are more regulated than south of the border.
In La Loche, which has a population of 2,600, 18 people committed suicide over a four-and-a-half year span to January 2010, the StarPhoenix newspaper said last year.
The educational assistant killed at the school was identified by her boyfriend and father as 23-year-old Marie Janvier. Students, just returning from lunch, flee for their lives.
“I grew up not a good guy, but she turned me right”, Park told The Associated Press. “She was a charming, sweet young woman and I loved her so much”, Patrick Wagenaar wrote on Facebook.
“I absolutely agree with the member that, up until now, there have been absolutely inadequate resources and serious gaps in terms of the health outcomes and the opportunities that First Nations children and Inuit children have to access these resources”, she said.
Janvier was known for her patience and kindness with students and was reportedly hoping to pursue a career in teaching following her time at La Loche. She said she doesn’t think destroying the building would help. “They would just come running to her. She was just a friend to everybody”.
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The victims of Friday’s shooting have been identified as Marie Janvier and Adam Wood, who were both teachers, and brothers Dayne and Drayden Fontaine.
