Suspect in Canada school shooting identified as 18-year-old

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The suspect in a school shooting in Canada that killed eight people in the remote community of Tumbler Ridge in British Columbia was identified as 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, Royal Canadian Mounted Police said. Authorities said Van Rootselaar was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted wound a day after the attack, which also left more than 25 people wounded.

RCMP deputy commissioner Dwayne McDonald said investigators believe Van Rootselaar first killed her mother and stepbrother at the family home and then attacked a nearby school. McDonald said police had been to Van Rootselaar’s home previously to check on her mental health contacts, and he described the motive as unclear.

Police said the death toll was initially reported as nine fatalities, but McDonald later said there were eight deaths. He said the discrepancy came from a victim who had been airlifted to a medical center, and authorities mistakenly thought that person had died.

McDonald said the killings at the home occurred first. He said a young family member at the house went to a neighbor, who called police, and that the bodies of Van Rootselaar’s mother, who was also 39, and her 11-year-old stepbrother were found at the home.

At the school, McDonald said one victim was found in a stairwell and the rest were found in the library. He said the suspect was not related to any of the victims at the school, and he told reporters, “There is no information at this point that anyone was specifically targeted.”

Authorities said they recovered a long gun and a modified handgun. RCMP said officers arrived at the school about two minutes after the initial call, and when they arrived, shots were fired in their direction.

Outside the town, Prime Minister Mark Carney arrived at Parliament to address the deaths. His office said he called off a planned trip to Europe, and Carney said, “Parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers in Tumbler Ridge will wake up without someone they love. The nation mourns with you, and Canada stands by you.” He also said flags at government buildings would be flown at half-staff for seven days and added: “We will get through this.”

The attack was Canada’s deadliest rampage since 2020, when a gunman in Nova Scotia killed 13 people and set fires that left another nine dead, according to the Associated Press reporting. British Columbia Premier David Eby said the full extent of what happened would not sink in for some time, and he told reporters outside a town hall that it was “an incredibly strong community” where “everybody is worried about somebody else.”

In Tumbler Ridge, local residents described the scale of the grief. Mayor Darryl Krakowka called it “devastating” and said the community is a “big family,” adding, “I have lived here for 18 years. I probably know every one of the victims.” A rev. George Rowe of Tumbler Ridge Fellowship Baptist Church, who once taught at the high school and whose children graduated from there, said, “To walk through the corridors of that school will never be the same again.”

Shelley Quist said her neighbor across the street lost her 12-year-old. Quist said she heard the child’s mother “in the street crying,” and she also described her own son’s experience during the lockdown, saying that her 17-year-old son, Darian, was inside the school for more than two hours. Quist said her coworker held her back from running to the school, and she was able to reach Darian by phone to confirm he was OK.

Darian Quist said he realized the attack was real when the principal came through the halls ordering doors closed, and he said fellow students texted him pictures of blood while he remained locked down in a classroom. He said, “We used the desk to block the doors.” The provincial government website lists Tumbler Ridge Secondary School as having 175 students in grades 7 to 12.

The school district said the high school and elementary school would be closed for the rest of the week. School shootings are rare in Canada, which has strict gun-control laws, and the government has responded to previous mass shootings with gun-control measures including a recently broadened ban on all guns it considers assault weapons.