2026 Tumbler Ridge shooting

Tumbler Ridge is a small mining town with a population of 2,399, according to the 2021 census. Tumbler Ridge Secondary School is a public secondary school operated by School District 59 Peace River South, and it is the designated secondary school for the town's primary school. For the 2025–26 school year, the school had 191 students from grades 7 to 12. Gun control legislation in Canada was greatly reinforced with the passage of the Firearms Act in 1995, following the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre in Montreal. After the 2020 Nova Scotia attacks, such restrictions were further strengthened, with the sale, transport, importation or use of certain models of "assault-style" firearms banned via an Order in Council, with the deadline for firearm disposal set at October 30, 2026. The Canadian Firearms Program of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is tasked with enforcing the act. ==Attacks==

Shooting of family members The attacker's mother and 11-year-old half brother were shot and killed at their home at Fellers Avenue in Tumbler Ridge. Police had already been called to the school when a surviving resident and neighbours alerted them to this attack; the Vancouver Sun reported that this was the 8-year-old half-brother of the shooter. School shooting Van Rootselaar then went to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School with a modified rifle and a long gun shortly after police arrived. RCMP received a report of an active shooter at the school, which is approximately from the family home. An alarm in the school instructed students to close the doors for a lockdown. Students then barricaded the doors with tables. A 17-year-old student in the school gym reported hearing "12 shots ring out in quick succession". Premier of British Columbia David Eby said the police had reached the school within two minutes of the initial reports. Gunshots from the attacker continued as the four RCMP officers responded at the scene. Later on the day of the shooting, School District 59 announced that both schools in Tumbler Ridge would remain closed for the rest of the week. ==Victims==

Six people were found dead inside the school; a seventh was mistakenly reported as deceased en route to the hospital but survived. The dead at the school were identified as a 39-year-old education assistant Shannda Aviugana-Durand, Two people were found dead at a residence in Tumbler Ridge. RCMP confirmed that they were the perpetrator's mother, Jennifer Strang, and the perpetrator's 11-year-old half brother. Both had been shot before the perpetrator attacked the school. Twenty-seven other people were treated for injuries, including two with serious injuries. A Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service aircraft was dispatched from Grande Prairie, Alberta. In a press conference, the British Columbia RCMP confirmed that two injured people were airlifted to Vancouver hospitals. One, a 19-year-old woman, was released from the hospital on February 16,{{cite news|url=https://vancouversun.com/news/tumbler-ridge-survivor-maya-gebala-hospital-update|archive-url=https://megalodon.jp/2026-0317-1022-51/https://vancouversun.com:443/news/tumbler-ridge-survivor-maya-gebala-hospital-update|archive-date=March 17, 2026|date=February 16, 2026|title=Tumbler Ridge survivors update: Maya Gebala making progress, Paige Hoekstra heading home ==Perpetrator==

Jesse Van Rootselaar (August 4, 2007 – February 10, 2026), also known as Jesse Strang, was identified as the suspected shooter by RCMP deputy commissioner Dwayne McDonald, McDonald stated that Van Rootselaar was a trans woman who had dropped out of school about four years prior to the shooting. According to McDonald, there was no information to suggest that Jesse Van Rootselaar had been bullied at school. Jesse was estranged from her father, which her father blamed on choices made by her mother. Jesse Van Rootselaar and her siblings had been the subject of custody disputes between their parents, and they had moved between Newfoundland and Labrador, including the town of Lawn where Strang grew up, and parts of Western Canada, including Grande Cache, Alberta and Powell River, British Columbia, multiple times between 2010 and 2015. Jennifer Strang was in the process of divorcing her husband, who was the father of three of her children (including the 11-year-old son killed alongside her) and who resided in Alberta at the time of the attack. Interest in guns and violence Van Rootselaar's YouTube profile picture featured an anime-style mascot and a rifle set against a pink-and-white-striped background. Her TikTok account, which used the same profile image, featured multiple reposted videos of the transgender mass shooter who killed six people at a Christian school in Nashville in 2023. In a social media post in , Van Rootselaar's mother "promoted the teenager's YouTube channel... noting that her child 'posts about hunting, self-reliance, guns. A Reddit account linked to the shooter posted a video in 2023 at a firing range. About five months before the shooting, she created an account on WatchPeopleDie.tv, a web forum dedicated to gore videos and violence that has been frequented by multiple other mass shooters, including Natalie Rupnow, whose profile was visited by Van Rootselaar. Van Rootselaar's posts on the website included multiple photos of firearms, including an SKS rifle and a KRISS Vector gun, and videos of her firing them. Van Rootselaar created a mall shooting simulator game on Roblox, according to the platform's administrators. Jesse Van Rootselaar had previously held a valid minor's licence (12–17) for borrowing non-restricted firearms, which only allows for temporarily borrowing a non-restricted (ordinary rifle or shotgun) firearm for approved purposes; it had expired in 2024. She was not the owner of any firearms because acquiring and possessing firearms is not allowed with a minor's licence. According to McDonald, Jennifer Strang "had a valid firearms licence but did not have any restricted firearms that would require registration". RCMP confirmed that in a previous police visit in the past two years, "firearms were seized under the Criminal Code", but that "the lawful owner of those firearms petitioned for them to be returned, and they were". A relative told The Globe and Mail that the seized guns had been returned "roughly a month" prior to the shooting. The Wall Street Journal reported that Van Rootselaar's conversations with the chatbot "described scenarios involving gun violence over the course of several days", and that these messages were "flagged by an automated review system". At that time, about a dozen OpenAI employees debated turning the chatlogs over to the law enforcement. A spokeswoman for OpenAI confirmed that the company had banned Van Rootselaar's account but stated that it determined that her activity did not meet the criteria for reporting to law enforcement. Drug use and mental health Van Rootselaar wrote on social media that she "regularly took DMT" and tried to "burn [her] house down after using psychedelic mushrooms". After using psilocybin mushrooms in October 2023, Van Rootselaar wrote: "I had a complete break from reality and did a lot of irrational things, I felt like I was dreaming. Many consequences ensued." Jesse Van Rootselaar had a history of poor mental health and police had responded several times previously for mental health-related calls, In 2023, Van Rootselaar "spent weeks receiving treatment in Prince George". The police had last visited the home in spring 2025 regarding mental health issues, including self-harm. ==Investigation==

and Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General Nina Krieger at a press conference the day of the shooting RCMP superintendent Ken Floyd stated at a press conference the day of the shooting that they were investigating how the shooter was connected to the victims. Police recovered a long gun and a modified rifle (previously reported as a modified handgun) from the school. The RCMP expected to have completed their investigation at the residence on the weekend of February 14, but noted that the forensic investigation at the secondary school will take "much longer". On February 13, McDonald said that four firearms related to the shooting had been recovered: two at the perpetrator's home and two at the school. The "main firearm believed to be the one that caused the most damage" at the school is of an unknown origin, having never been seized by the RCMP, as is the shotgun found at the residence. ==Reactions==

Several Canadian politicians released statements offering their condolences to those affected by the shootings, including Prime Minister Mark Carney, BC premier David Eby, Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies MP Bob Zimmer, and Peace River South MLA Larry Neufeld. Carney cancelled his imminent trip to the 62nd Munich Security Conference in Europe, and announced that flags would be flown at half-mast on federal buildings and Parliament Hill for seven days. King Charles III of Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee also expressed their condolences. At the time of the shooting, the Canadian team was competing in the 2026 Winter Olympics. Immediately following the shootings, BC Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General Nina Krieger declared that her office would "deploy every resource" to support the investigation. After the shooting, Tumbler Ridge councillor Chris Norbury described Tumbler Ridge as "an incredibly safe community", stating that "we don't have to worry about crime here." Tumbler Ridge mayor Darryl Krakowka said: "I will know every victim. I've been here 19 years, and we're a small community." On February 12, two days after the shootings, the Prime Minister's Office stated that Carney intended to visit Tumbler Ridge in the coming days, and that an appropriate schedule was being arranged with local officials. Carney extended invitations to other federal party leaders to travel with him to the community on February 13. Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet, interim NDP leader Don Davies, and Green Party leader Elizabeth May confirmed that they would travel with the prime minister to attend. On February 13 while at a vigil, Eby promised families that students would not be forced to return to the high school. The Canadian Press reported that the superintendent of the Peace River South school district said that the "expectation is that students will not be returning" to the secondary school. United Nations secretary-general António Guterres expressed his deepest sympathies to those affected and his solidarity with the government and people of Canada. Misinformation Both before and after the perpetrator was revealed to be transgender, unsubstantiated claims and misinformation about violence by transgender people were shared online. Additionally, numerous social media posts and news sources showed photos of a trans woman in Ontario who had the same last name as Jesse but is unrelated to the shooting, claiming her photos were photos of the shooter. Her mother said she became "afraid to go outside". ==See also==