Four dead in Canada school shooting, suspect held

Police said a suspect was arrested after the shooting in La Loche on Friday, Saskatchewan, an impoverished community about 600 km north of the city of Saskatoon. The town’s acting mayor, Kevin Janvier, told the Associated Press that his 23-year-old daughter Marie, a teacher, was shot to death. He also said police told him that the gunman first shot two of his siblings at home and then made his way to the school. Officials have not given a motivation for the shooting or named the suspect or victims. 

A family friend said the teenaged suspect shot his two younger brothers before going to the school and shooting a teacher and an assistant. 

“After he shot his two brothers, he walked back to school and he shot ... a teacher and a girl. They’re both dead. Four of them died,” said Joe Lemaigre, a family friend who lives on the outskirts of La Loche. “I know the family. Their mother worked in Fort McMurray and his grandfather went to Meadow Lake to do some shopping. That’s when he shot them.” 

The shooting occurred in the high school and a second location, Canadian police said, adding they took the suspect into custody outside the school and seized a gun. A mobile phone video taken by one resident and broadcast by the CBC showed students walking away from the school across the snow-covered ground and emergency personnel moving in. 

In 2014, a teacher expressed concern about violence at the La Loche school, noting that a student who had tried to stab her was put back in her classroom after serving his sentence, and another attacked her at her home.