Kinistino, Sask. –
A 26-year-old woman injured in a stabbing at James Smith Cree Nation says she doesn’t know why she was targeted.
“Right when I saw him with that knife, I was just trying to get away from him right away,” Galynn Burns said.
She says that Myles Sanderson entered Brian and Bonnie Burns’ house through a basement window. Once inside, he began stabbing people, including Galynn.
“I ran away from him and he chased me,” she said.
Burns says Sanderson first stabbed her in the abdomen, but she was able to get away from him and duck under a table. She then used her forearms to protect herself from her, but she was stabbed several times as she tried to block her blows.
“I had my arm up and he was trying to stab anywhere.”
Bonnie Burns and her son Greg were fatally attacked in the house. Gloria Burns was one of the first responders and a relative. She came to the house to help and was stabbed to death.
“I saw everything that happened in that house,” Burns said.
She says she doesn’t know why Sanderson stabbed her and the other people in the house.
“He was going after whoever got in his way, I guess.”
Burns called his sister who was taking care of his children because he thought he might die from his injuries like the others.
“I was more or less saying goodbye to my children.”
Burns says the attack has left her with “flashbacks.” She says that she is still trying to process what happened and says that counselors have told her that she has PTSD.
“I really can’t remember because it happened so fast.”
The mass stabbing on September 4 left 10 dead and 18 injured. The suspects, the Myles brothers and Damien Sanderson, are dead.
Damien’s body was found in a grassy area in the James Smith Cree Nation on September 5. Police do not believe his fatal injuries were self-inflicted.
Myles Sanderson died in police custody after suffering medical problems shortly after his arrest on September 7.
Burns says that despite the death of the man she says attacked her, she still has trouble sleeping and has to check that all windows and doors are closed and locked before she goes to bed at night. H
Burns’s parents and boyfriend have stayed with her to help ease her fears.
“I’m not ready to be alone,” she said. “It’s like a daily thing that I think about.”
Burns was in the hospital for five days. Doctors told him the knife severed a nerve in his arm. He has lost all movement in his dominant right hand and has to wear a hand brace.
He is in physiotherapy to try to recover the movement of his fingers.
“My biggest fear is that this could be a lifelong disability and I hope to make a full recovery and return to my daily activities as a mother,” she said.
Galynn is the mother of four children, ranging in age from ten to one.
She says she knows other people like her boyfriend’s brother who was stabbed and spent several days in intensive care.
“I can imagine making a full recovery and going back to school.”
She says she’s lucky to live off the reservation so she won’t have to drive to the house where it happened.
“I am blessed to be here today. Especially for my children too. They are probably why I am here today,” she said.