A person was killed and the suspect is dead after multiple people were stabbed in Hollow Water First Nation on Thursday, RCMP say.
At least six people were taken to hospital, police said in a news release. RCMP will hold a news conference about the stabbings at 2 p.m. CT in Winnipeg. CBC will livestream the news conference here.
Michael Raven was one of the six people injured in the stabbings, said his son Jordan Hamilton and daughter Christy Williams.
Their father was at home sleeping on Thursday, when someone broke in, woke him up and stabbed him several times, the siblings said.
Raven’s lung was punctured by a stab in his back, Hamilton and Williams said. He was also hit with a bottle, but the siblings said he is conscious, awake and talking.
“The community is all shaken up from it. It is not something that happens in Hollow Water,” Williams said. “This is scary for everybody.… This incident doesn’t sum up Hollow Water.”
Out of respect for the other victims’ families, the siblings declined to speak about what led to their father’s stabbing.
Earlier Thursday morning, police had warned the public about a heavy police presence in the First Nation, about 160 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, after a “serious incident” happened sometime before 8:30 a.m. Thursday.
A spokesperson for Manitoba Shared Health told CBC News at least eight patients with varying levels of injuries were taken to the emergency room at Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre.
STARS air ambulance helicopters airlifted two people, while six others were taken to hospital by road, the spokesperson said.
A code orange alert was issued for the hospital shortly after receiving reports of a “mass casualty event” in the First Nation, said the spokesperson for Shared Health, which runs the hospital. A code orange is called when a hospital needs to prepare for a potential sudden influx of patients.
Mounties said there is no further risk to public safety and they expect to be in the community through the day.
Highway 304 is closed in both directions south Black River First Nation, about 40 km south of Hollow Water, in connection with the incident, RCMP said.
Hollow Water First Nation, also known as Waanibiigaaw or Wanipigow in Ojibwe, is an Anishinaabe community located on the east shore of Lake Winnipeg. As of August, there were just over 1,100 registered community members living on reserve, the Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada website says.
