The deadliest school shooting in recent Canadian history occurred Tuesday in the small mountain town of Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia. Authorities said an 18-year-old woman killed at least eight people, including two family members, and injured at least 25 others in two separate incidents at a residence and a middle school.
Flags across Canada were lowered to half-staff on Wednesday, and Prime Minister Mark Carney and other prominent figures in the country’s political world spoke in Parliament and observed a moment of silence to pay respect to the victims. British Columbia’s parliament has postponed a major address to MPs and declared Thursday a day of remembrance.
Here’s what we know about the shooting, the victims, the alleged shooter and the ongoing investigation.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Deputy Chief Dwayne McDonald said Wednesday that they believe the gunman initially killed his mother and brother-in-law at a home in Tumbler Ridge, then moved to the school and continued his spree.
Police received a report of a shooting at Tumbler Ridge Middle School on Tuesday at 1:20 p.m. local time (4:20 p.m. ET). Police arrived on the scene within minutes.
At around 1:30 p.m., alarms began sounding inside the school, announcing a lockdown and ordering classroom doors to be closed. One student said he and his classmates barricaded themselves in a table.
Meanwhile, a young female relative of the suspected gunman at his home in Tumbler Ridge reported the attack to neighbors, who raised the alarm, McDonald said at a news conference Wednesday.
Police did not receive a call from a neighbor asking them to come to the home until 1:47 p.m. PT, about 17 minutes after RCMP first received reports of an active shooter at the school.
RCMP immediately issued a “shelter-in-place” warning, telling Tumbler Ridge residents to lock their doors and remain indoors until further instructions. RCMP say the alleged gunman was found dead inside the school. McDonald told reporters Wednesday that when police entered the school, they found one victim dead in the stairwell and the others dead in the library.
At 5:45 p.m., police lifted the red alert, saying they did not believe there was “an apparent suspect or ongoing threat to the public.” Police said the alleged gunman was found “dead of what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.” Approximately 25 other people were reportedly injured.
The victims of the Tumbler Ridge shooting included a teacher, several students and two relatives of the suspected shooter, police said Wednesday.
“The victims who died at the school included an adult female educator, three female students and two male students,” McDonald said.
At a subsequent press conference, Sergeant Vanessa Mann said the victims included “three female students and two male students aged 12 and 13,” correcting the earlier ages cited by McDonald.
“Two additional victims, an adult female and a male juvenile, were found dead in a local residence,” McDonald said, adding that the two additional victims were the suspect’s mother and stepbrother.
As of Wednesday evening, authorities had not confirmed the identities of the casualties.
“We are currently in the process of notifying families,” McDonald said. “As I said before, most of the victims are quite young. Most were born in 2013 or 2012.”
Authorities previously believed nine other people were killed in addition to the gunman. McDonald said police initially believed one of the victims had died from “severe injuries,” but he actually survived.
“She was alive and was one of two female victims airlifted to hospital,” McDonald said, adding that both victims, ages 12 and 19, remain in critical condition.
Mr McDonald continued that public identification of the victims will be closely coordinated with their families.
“This is incredibly shocking, so we’re going to address and work with the family and work with the family in releasing the identity of the victim,” McDonald said. “We don’t want to cause further trauma to families who are going through perhaps the worst situation of their lives.”
Police have identified the suspect in the Tumbler Ridge, B.C., shooting as Jessie Van Rootseller, an 18-year-old woman from the town who “dropped out of school about four years ago.”
McDonald said Van Rootseller “is not currently attending school,” adding that police had “visited Van Rootseller’s residence numerous times over the past several years to address the suspect’s mental health concerns.”
The most recent police visit was “last spring” due to “concerns about mental health and self-harm”.
“I can tell you that on various occasions, suspects have been arrested for identification and follow-up,” MacDonald said. Firearms were seized from the home and returned after the owner’s plea.
Asked whether Van Roetzeler was transgender, McDonald said police were identifying her “as she chooses to be identified in public and on social media.”
“Jesse was born biologically male, but I would say that about six years ago she started transitioning to female status and is socially and publicly identified as female,” MacDonald said.
MacDonald said there was no information to suggest that Van Rootseller experienced “bullying” at school in connection with his conversion.
As for whether the alleged gunman left behind a note or any correspondence that would suggest a motive, McDonald said police have not found it.
“Recognizing that this incident has occurred less than 24 hours ago, (the motive) is certainly something we are actively pursuing,” McDonald said. “But it would be too early to speculate on a motive.”
One of British Columbia’s newest towns, Tumbler Ridge was founded as a coal mining community in the 1980s as part of the province’s resource development megaproject. It has been called one of British Columbia’s last “instant towns,” or remote resource communities where long-term settlement and community development are encouraged by the government.
Two nearby coal mines, the town’s main employers, opened in 1983, but both closed by 2003 due to falling coal prices and market uncertainty.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told the House of Commons on Wednesday that “when coal mines closed, residents supported local businesses and shared job opportunities,” calling the city a “resilient” town “built on the promise of a resource economy.”
Town planners are focused on Tumbler Ridge’s resilience, how it continued to survive after the area’s coal mining industry collapsed.
“This is a town of miners, teachers, construction workers, families who have built their lives here, people who have always been there for each other,” Carney said.
“When the wildfires raged, neighbors helped each other pack up and move out of danger,” Carney said. “They checked on the elderly and people living alone to make sure no one was left behind.”
