The two men sought in the stabbing attacks that began in the James Smith Cree Nation remain at large and “are likely” in Regina, the city’s police chief, Evan Bray, said in a video posted on Twitter late Sunday night.
Chief Bray said he wanted to offer “a quick update” on what he called an “unfolding situation” in the area near the Indigenous reserve in Saskatchewan, telling residents that the Regina Police Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police would work through the night “until we locate and arrest these two suspects.”
“We still believe these suspects are likely in the city of Regina and as such we have a lot of resources that are dedicated to this,” he said in the message posted at 8:08 p.m. local time, more than 12 hours after the first attack was reported to have happened in predawn hours.
The video statement was also published by the verified Twitter account of the Regina Police, where an officer who answered the phone confirmed that it had been issued by the police chief.
Chief Bray said he wanted to reassure residents of Regina, a city of about 226,000 people, that the authorities were continuing to pursue the two men believed to have committed the stabbings, even if there are no immediate updates on the case. He urged the public to share any information with Regina police or their nearest police service.
“The public is often the key to helping us resolve these situations quickly,” he said, adding that it could be “the missing piece of information we need.”
Chief Bray did not elaborate on why the authorities believe that the suspects are in the city of Regina, which is more than 300 kilometers south of the James Smith Cree Nation.
