PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. -- A murder suspect who escaped after two correctional officers in Saskatchewan were ambushed is back in custody.
Braidy Vermette, 28, was arrested just north of Prince Albert, in the Rural Municipality of Buckland, early Thursday after police received a tip that Vermette and his girlfriend Tristen Smith were in a house in the area.
Smith was also wanted by police for breach of undertaking. She and Vermette were arrested leaving the house after the home caught fire.
"The province, of course, is very happy that these individuals have both been apprehended and that community safety is no longer being threatened by them being out in the Prince Albert area," Drew Wilby, spokesman for the Ministry of Justice, said in Regina.
Wilby could not say how the fire started at the home or if there was a standoff between Vermette and police.
"That investigation will be ongoing. In terms of what's happened, I know that the RCMP have asked for an independent observer from the province."
The RCMP has also requested another police service conduct an independent, external investigation.
Vermette was being escorted from the Prince Albert Provincial Correctional Centre to a hospital for a self-inflicted injury last week when two armed, masked attackers surprised the correctional officers.
The attackers had a gun and used bear spray on the unarmed guards.
Wilby says it's his understanding that police are still looking for the two suspects in the ambush.
Vermette was in remand waiting to appear in court on a first-degree murder charge. He is accused in the death of Troy Napope, who was last seen in June 2015. His burned car was later found in the forest north of Prince Albert.
Wilby says the escape was "premeditated, both from inside and outside" the jail.
"Our investigation has shown that there were inmates on Mr. Vermette's unit that likely were a part of this, so we'll continue to investigate that," said Wilby.
He could not say how long the investigation will take.
Wilby also says there will be a policy review and likely some security protocol changes.
"What I would say that we're not going to look at, at this time, is arming our correctional officers, our correctional workers," said Wilby.
"There's one jurisdiction outside of the federal jurisdiction in Canada that I'm aware of that does that. Oftentimes that can be very dangerous. I think it's safe to say that if we had armed correction workers, we may not have two corrections workers that are alive today, so that is something that the ministry is not ready to consider at this time."
--- by Jennifer Graham in Regina and with files from CTV Saskatoon
