The outside of La Loche Community School where the gunman was arrested after the shooting. (AP PHOTO)
Toronto — A gunman opened fire at a high school and a second location in an aboriginal community in northern Saskatchewan, leaving four dead and at least two injured, officials said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said from Davos, Switzerland that a suspect was in custody. Trudeau initially said five died in the shootings Friday, but police later corrected that to four.
“This is every parent’s worst nightmare,” he said. “The community is reeling.”
Kevin Janvier told The Associated Press that his 23-year old daughter Marie, a teacher, was shot dead by the gunman. He said police told him that the gunman first shot two of his siblings before killing his daughter.
“He shot two of his brothers at his home and made his way to the school,” he said. “I’m just so sad.”
Marie was Janvier’s only child. He said he didn’t know if the shooter knew his daughter.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Chief Supt. Maureen Levy said the gunman was arrested outside the school but declined to release details about him.
Levy said she wasn’t sure how many suffered injuries. The prime minister earlier described two injuries as critical.
“At the present time there are four individuals deceased,” Levy said.
Levy declined to release more details, saying the investigation is in its early stages. She declined to give the gender or ages of the deceased.
A student who was just returning from lunch when shots were fired said his friends ran past him urging him to get out.
“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! They were just yelling to me. And then I was hearing those shots, too, so of course I started running.”
Shootings at schools or on university campuses are rare in Canada. However, the country’s bloodiest shooting occurred Dec. 6, 1989 at Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique, when Marc Lepine entered a college classroom at the engineering school, separated the men from the women, told the men to leave and opened fire, killing 14 women before killing himself.
The grade 7 through 12 La Loche Community School is in the remote Dene aboriginal community of La Loche, Saskatchewan. The school’s Facebook page said it would remain on lockdown until the Royal Canadian Police resolve the matter. It asked the public to stay away.
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