3 sisters among 5 killed in highway crash: ‘This is very hard on the Maskwacis community’

Three sisters are among the five people killed in a two-vehicle crash south of Edmonton on Tuesday.

Cheyane, Dominique and Latesha Soosay Northwest died in the collision, along with Tony Swampy. Global News has not yet confirmed the fifth person killed.

“It’s tough to lose one family member, but when you lose five from a community… words can’t express,” Samson Cree Nation Chief Vernon Saddleback said. “I honestly don’t know what to say about this… I’m still in shock myself.

“Every loss we have in our community is hard. Part of it is that we’re an extended family community here so everybody kind of knows everybody. So whenever we lose somebody, it’s all tragic, it’s a huge loss.”

The crash happened at around 4:15 p.m. on Highway 2A at Township Road 472, about five kilometres south of Millet, Alta.

“There were two vehicles — a car and an SUV — and that’s really the extent of what I can say,” Cpl. Laurel Scott said Wednesday.

“The nature of how they collided is still being investigated.”

READ MORE: 5 people killed in collision south of Edmonton near Millet

Four people were pronounced dead at the scene, according to the RCMP. One was taken to hospital where they were pronounced dead. All five were in the same vehicle.

The driver and only occupant of the second vehicle was taken to hospital with minor injuries.

“This is very hard on the Maskwacis community, Wetaskiwin community, everybody who knows some of these people,” Scott said. “It’s hard for everybody, we recognize that.

“We also know that Maskwacis, not very long ago, had other people killed in a fatality. So this hits them hard.”

READ MORE: 3 killed in Alberta highway crash ‘hits Maskwacis community hard’: RCMP  

Saddleback said all five people killed were young adults between the ages of 20 and 30.

They were all from Maskwacis but were living in Wetaskiwin, he said.

“We lost five members from the Maskwacis community,” Saddleback said. “We lost members from both the Samson and Ermineskin communities.

“I do want to give my condolences and my prayers to all families involved. This is a horrible, horrible tragedy for everyone involved in the losses.”

Scott said police are receiving support as well as community members.

“The Maskwacis detachment is very involved right now with the chiefs, and they’ve got the Victims Services unit in Maskwacis helping and also the Urgent Mental Health Care workers … everyone works together to reach out and help families, friends, whoever needs support.”

Millet is approximately 40 kilometres south of Edmonton.

People who live along the busy highway said they knew something was terribly wrong Tuesday when STARS Air Ambulance landed at the crash scene and didn’t take off for quite some time.

Watch below: Five people are dead after a two-vehicle collision south of Edmonton Tuesday afternoon. It happened on Highway 2A near Millet, where Quinn Ohler joined Global News Morning live Wednesday morning. 

“Regardless of your faith — whether you follow the Native traditions… or if you’re a Christian, if you’re Catholic, or Jewish or Muslim or Seventh Day Adventist — regardless of your faith, in these tough tragic times, we all believe in the power of prayer,” Saddleback said.

“I want to ask everyone out there who’s watching, listening or who’s going to read this story, if you could pray for our communities… and pray for those families.

Saddleback said he spent the morning meeting with the families’ grandmothers.

“You don’t know when tragedy is going to strike. You don’t know when you’re going to lose your loved ones. The only thing I can tell people out there is to make sure you love your parents, love your kids, love your spouse , love one another. Make sure you have no regrets in the life you live.”