Canada school shooting: 4 killed

The number of dead in a school shooting in northern Canada was revised down to four from five, the Canadian police said late on Friday, but gave no new details of either the victims or the one male in custody.

In a media briefing, Chief Superintendent Maureen Levy of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said that chaos in the immediate wake of the shooting at La Loche community school made some of the early information unreliable.

Levy also said that a number of people were injured in the daytime shooting on Friday in La Loche, Saskatchewan, a community about 600km from Saskatoon.

“In incidents such as this there is a lot of information going back-and-forth very quickly,” Levy said.

She did not confirm the number of injured or the extent of their injuries or any further information about the casualties or the suspect, saying the police force wanted to “ensure the integrity of the investigation”.

Acting mayor Kevin Janvier told the Associated Press that his 23-year-old daughter, a teacher, was among those killed by the shooter.

“He shot two of his brothers at his home and made his way to the school,” Janvier is quoted as saying. “I’m just so sad.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, speaking from Davos earlier, said: “We all grieve with and stand with the community of La Loche and all of Saskatchewan on this tragic day. This is every parent’s worst nightmare.”

Clearwater River Dene Nation chief Teddy Clark told the Saskatoon Star Phoenix that La Loche was “devastated” by the shooting.

“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.”

The province’s RCMP division confirmed on Friday night that they received a complaint at 1pm of an active shooter in the community and at 1:47pm took one male into custody and seized a firearm.

Grade 10 student Noel Desjarlais described the chaos at the La Loche community school in an interview with CBC News.

“I ran outside the school,” he said. “There was lots of screaming, there was about six, seven shots before I got outside. I believe there were more shots by the time I did get out.”
On its Facebook page, the school urged the public to stay away while the incident was handled by the Royal Canadian police.

“We will not be allowing anyone in or out until we have a clear idea of what is going on,” a post on the page said.

The lockdown on the school that had been in place for hours was lifted late on Friday and children at the school were moved to a safe location, Levy said.

Aside from the school, investigators were also at the 300 block of Dene Crescent, but it was not immediately clear why.

The school houses about 900 students in two buildings, an elementary school and the Dene high school.

While details of the incident remained scarce, Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall said in a statement that “words cannot express my shock and sorrow at the horrific events today”.

Federal New Democrat MP Georgina Jolibois, a former mayor of the community, also said in a statement she was “shocked and saddened by the shooting”.

“The community of La Loche is close-knit. We have faced adversity in the past and we will persevere,” she said.

By Friday evening, hundreds of messages of condolences from all over the world filled the La Loche Community School’s Facebook page in the wake of the tragic news, sending a message of solidarity to the school and community of about 2,600 people.

A medical transport helicopter was dispatched from Saskatoon to the community to deal with the emergency, according to the Stars ambulance Twitter account.

The remote town in the northwestern corner of the prairie province is bordered by the Clearwater River Dene Nation.

The community’s struggles with high rates of suicide and self-harm among its predominantly aboriginal population has been documented in recent years by the local health authority and media.