Sask. mass killer Myles Sanderson died of 'acute cocaine overdose': pathologist
CTV
Minutes before losing consciousness, mass killer Myles Sanderson told his arresting RCMP officers 'you should have f**king shot me.'
A forensic pathologist told a Saskatchewan coroner's inquest on Tuesday that the man who killed 11 people and injured 17 others in a brutal stabbing rampage died from an "acute cocaine overdose."
Sanderson's September 2022 mass killings in the communities of James Smith Cree Nation and the village of Weldon triggered a three-day manhunt that gripped the province through a series of jarring emergency alerts. He went into medical distress minutes after being taken into RCMP custody.
The inquest, which started on Monday in Saskatoon, is expected to rule on Myles Sanderson's cause of death and offer recommendations to prevent similar incidents in the future.
On Tuesday afternoon, the inquest heard testimony from Dr. Shaun Ladham, who performed the autopsy on Sanderson.
Ladham said there were very high levels of cocaine in his body, and a lab technician later confirmed it was the highest level of cocaine she had every seen.
"This was a very high level," said Ladham.
The pathologist also noted some signs of atherosclerosis — the shrinking and hardening of arteries in the heart — which may or may not have contributed to his quick death.
