Playground built to honour victim of Saskatchewan mass stabbing two years later

Police and investigators are seen on a road outside Rosthern, Sask., on Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2022. RCMP say Myles Sanderson, a suspect in a deadly stabbing rampage northeast of Saskatoon over the weekend, has been taken into custody near the town of Rosthern on the fourth day of a massive manhunt. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Heywood Yu

Children have been swinging, sliding and climbing on a playground built to honour one of the victims of a mass stabbing two years ago northeast of Saskatoon.

Chelsey Erickson, who organized the playground project, says Wesley Petterson's name is to be emblazoned on a metal sign at the structure in the village of Weldon.

In 2022, Myles Sanderson killed 10 people and injured 17 others on James Smith Cree Nation before fatally stabbing Petterson, who was 78, nearby in Weldon.

Erickson says flower beds have been placed around the playground to remember Petterson.

She says he was heavily involved in the community and would cut the town's grass and gather people for coffee.

“He was such a kind man. He’d give you the shirt off his back because that’s the type of person he was. I knew him my whole life because our families spent a lot of time visiting one another,” Chelsey Erickson, one of the co-directors of the Weldon Playground Project told CTV News in April.

The park and playground is intended to provide a safe and fun space for children in the community.

“We need a safe space where our children are free to play and have fun away from traffic. It would be a gathering place for families,” Erickson said at the time.

The Weldon Playground Committee, a team of five, had set a fundraising goal of $150,000.

At James Smith Cree Nation, a powwow ceremony is planned for Friday to honour an RCMP officer who took down Sanderson's stolen truck during a high-speed chase before he died in police custody from a cocaine overdose.

--With files from Stacey Hein.