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Canadian police have identified the suspect who carried out a school massacre in remote British Columbia as an 18-year old woman with a history of mental health problems.
Six people, including a teacher and five students, were killed in the attack on Tuesday in the town of Tumbler Ridge, in foothills of the Rocky mountains. The victim’s mother and step-brother were later found dead at the family home, police said. The body of the shooter was also found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The incident was one of the worst mass casualty events in Canada’s recent history.
“This is a deeply distressing incident where nine individuals have senselessly lost their lives,” said Dwayne McDonald, deputy commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, at a briefing on Wednesday in which he revised the death toll down to nine from the initially reported 10.
In a somber update to a tragedy that has shaken the country, McDonald said one of the victims believed to have succumbed to her injuries had survived but remains in critical condition.
According to police, the shooter, Jesse Van Rootselaar, arrived at a Tumbler Ridge secondary school on Tuesday afternoon, armed with a long gun and a modified handgun. The shooter opened fire on staff and students, killing one teacher and five students, whose ages ranged from 12 to 13.
Police arrived within two minutes of the shooting and were fired upon. When they entered the school, they found the victims in a stairwell and a classroom. The body of the shooter was also found.
Police later visited the family home and found Van Rootselaar’s mother, 39, and 11-year-old step-brother dead from gunshot wounds.
McDonald said police had responded to Van Rootselaar’s home for mental health-related calls over the last several years, with some of the calls concerning weapons. He said that, on at least one occasion, firearms had been seized from the home, and the lawful owner of the firearms had petitioned to have them returned.
Amid questions over how Van Rootselaar was described in alerts, McDonald said police “identified the suspect as they chose to be identified” in public and in social media.
“I can say that Jesse was born as a biological male who, approximately six years ago, began to transition to female and identified as female, both socially and publicly,” he said.
McDonald cautioned that the investigation remained in its early stages and police could not yet comment on a possible motive.
The prime minister, Mark Carney, said: “What happened has left our nation in shock and all of us in mourning.
“These children and their teachers bore witness to unheard-of cruelty. I want everyone to know this: our entire country stands with you, on behalf of all Canadians,” he said in an emotional address following a minute of silence in parliament.
Speaking to lawmakers in the House of Commons following the moment of silence, Carney said:
“Tumbler Ridge … is one of the youngest towns in the great province of British Columbia, carved out of the wilderness in the 1980s, built on the promise of the resource economy and by the determination of its residents. It’s a town of miners, teachers, construction workers, families who have built their lives there, people who have always shown up for each other there.”
Carney, who had already suspended plans to travel to Germany for the high-level Munich security conference, said he had ordered flags on all government buildings be flown at half-mast for the next seven days.
“We will get through this. We will learn from this,” he told reporters earlier in the day, at one point looking close to tears.
“But right now, it’s a time to come together, as Canadians always do in these situations, these terrible situations, to support each other, to mourn together and to grow together.”
The attack has left people reeling in Canada, where mass shootings are rare, especially compared with the US. While the country has relatively high levels of gun ownership, it has imposed much stricter laws than its southern neighbour, including a ban on assault-style firearms and a freeze on the sale of handguns.
Carney said he was also dispatching the federal public safety minister, Gary Anandasangaree, to the small community of Tumbler Ridge, an isolated town of fewer than 2,500 residents, more than 1,000km (600 miles) north-east of Vancouver by road.
At least two other people were hospitalised with serious or life-threatening wounds, and as many as 25 people were being treated for non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
The town’s mayor, Darryl Krakowka, said the small community was like a “big family”.
“I broke down,” Krakowka said. “I have lived here for 18 years. I probably know every one of the victims.”
British Columbia’s public safety minister, Nina Krieger, has said “speed and professionalism” had saved lives, and that a small detachment from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had “responded in two minutes”.
A 12-year-old girl was said to be “fighting for her life” in a Vancouver hospital after being shot in the head and neck, according to a widely shared Facebook post local media said was written by the girl’s mother, Cia Edmonds.
“She was a lucky one, I suppose. Condolences to the other families during this tragedy,” the post read. “This doesn’t even feel real.”
The district of Tumbler Ridge issued a statement on Tuesday afternoon, calling the shooting a “deeply distressing” incident. “We recognise that many residents may be feeling shocked, scared and overwhelmed,” the district said. “In the days ahead, we know this will be difficult for many to process. Please check in on one another, lean on available supports, and know that Tumbler Ridge is a strong and caring community.”
The Tumbler Ridge secondary school has 160 students in grades seven to 12, roughly ages 12 to 18, according to its website. The school will be closed for the rest of the week and counselling will be made available to those in need, school officials said.
“There are no words that can ease the fear and pain that events like this cause in a school community,” the Tumbler Ridge parent advisory council said in a statement. “We want families to know that the safety and wellbeing of students and staff are paramount, and we are grateful to the first responders and emergency personnel who acted quickly and professionally.”
The attack is the second-deadliest school shooting in Canadian history. In 1989, a gunman killed 14 students at Montreal’s L’Ecole Polytechnique in an attack that targeted women. In 2016, five people were killed in a series of shootings in La Loche, Saskatchewan.
After the country’s deadliest mass shooting attack, which left 22 people dead in Nova Scotia in 2020, Canada banned about 1,500 models of assault weapons.
British Columbia’s premier, David Eby, called Tuesday’s attack an “unimaginable tragedy”.
As a father of three, Eby said news of the shooting “makes you want to hug your kids a little tighter”.
“Wrap these families with love. Not just tonight but tomorrow and into the future. This is something that will reverberate for years to come,” he said.
