OpenAI said Friday it considered last year alerting Canadian police about the activities of Jesse Van Rootselaar, a teenager who months later committed one of Canada’s worst school shootings, killing eight people in British Columbia. The San Francisco company identified Van Rootselaar’s account in June 2025 through abuse detection efforts but determined the account activity did not meet its threshold for law enforcement referral. OpenAI banned the account that month for violating its usage policy.
OpenAI’s disclosure raises questions about the threshold technology platforms use to decide when user activity warrants alerting law enforcement, and whether earlier detection could have prevented the Tumbler Ridge tragedy.
OpenAI’s Decision-Making Threshold
OpenAI disclosed Friday that it uses a specific threshold to decide whether to report a user to law enforcement: whether there is an imminent and credible risk of serious physical harm to others.
The San Francisco tech company said it did not identify such a credible or imminent threat in the account activity of Jesse Van Rootselaar when the account was flagged last June.
The Account Detected and Banned
In June 2025, OpenAI’s abuse detection systems identified Van Rootselaar’s account as being used for “furtherance of violent activities.” The company considered whether to refer the account to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
After evaluating the account against its policy threshold, OpenAI determined the activity did not constitute an imminent and credible risk of serious physical harm. The company proceeded to ban the account for violating its usage policy but did not refer it to law enforcement.
Contact With Police After the Shooting
After learning of the school shooting last week, OpenAI staff reached out to the RCMP with information about Van Rootselaar and their use of ChatGPT.
“Our thoughts are with everyone affected by the Tumbler Ridge tragedy,” an OpenAI spokesperson said. “We proactively reached out to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police with information on the individual and their use of ChatGPT, and we’ll continue to support their investigation.”
RCMP Staff Sergeant Kris Clark confirmed that OpenAI contacted police after the shootings. He said the department is conducting “a thorough review of the content on electronic devices, as well as social media and online activities” of Van Rootselaar.
The Attack in British Columbia
Van Rootselaar, 18, killed eight people in the town of Tumbler Ridge, a remote community of 2,700 people in the Canadian Rockies, more than 1,000 kilometers northeast of Vancouver, near the provincial border with Alberta.
According to police, Van Rootselaar first killed her mother and stepbrother at the family home before attacking the nearby school. The victims included a 39-year-old teaching assistant and five students ages 12 to 13.
Van Rootselaar died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Deadliest Since 2020
The attack was Canada’s deadliest rampage since 2020, when a gunman in Nova Scotia killed 13 people and set fires that left another 9 dead.
The motive for the Tumbler Ridge shooting remains unclear. Police said Van Rootselaar had a history of mental health contacts with law enforcement.