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The family home of a teenager accused of being behind a deadly school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., had been the subject of police calls related to mental health and weapons in the past two years.
RCMP identified Jesse Van Rootselaar as the shooter who killed eight people on Wednesday — including her mother and stepbrother — before turning a gun on herself.
Police said they were investigating the circumstances leading up to the tragedy — including the relationship between the suspect and the two family members she killed at her home.
RCMP said Van Rootselaar shot her mother and stepbrother before killing six more victims, injuring more than two dozen others and then shooting herself at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School two kilometres away.
WATCH | Police identify Jesse Van Rootselaar:
Police identify suspect in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., mass shooting
We learned new details about the suspect involved in the mass shooting that killed nine people on Tuesday. The CBC’s Julia Wong has details of who the suspect is, the weapons found and the torment the community is dealing with.
Police said they were identifying Van Rootselaar in the same manner as she did in public and on social media. According to police, the 18-year-old was assigned male at birth, but began transitioning to female about six years ago.
Social media accounts connected to the suspect were the subject of worldwide scrutiny — as were the social media accounts of Van Rootselaar’s mother, Jennifer Strang, and her extended family, whose members span across the country from Newfoundland to B.C.’s Sunshine Coast.
According to a B.C. Supreme Court family case file from 2015, Strang’s children travelled the country with their mother, who was ordered not to remove them from British Columbia after an application from her former partner.
“These children have led an almost nomadic life, from what I have been told, with multiple moves over the last five years between Newfoundland, Grand Cache and Powell River,” Justice Anthony Saunder wrote in a ruling ordering Strang to provide her children telephone access to their father.
“It can hardly be the case that the children are tied in any meaningful sense to that one location.”
At the point of the family court dispute, Strang wanted to relocate her children to Newfoundland so they could enter the school system in that province.
She was pregnant at the time and claimed “she made the move to Newfoundland so that she could receive support from her family.”
Over the following years, Facebook accounts of family members show a tight-knit family who celebrated Van Rootselaar’s achievements and birthdays.
A post from Strang’s Facebook account from 2021 also suggests that Van Rootselaar had developed an interest in weapons.
“Check out my oldest son Jesse Strang’s YouTube channel. He posts about hunting, self reliance, guns and stuff he likes to do,” read the post, which links to a now-deleted YouTube channel. “He doesn’t go on much other social media so this is his way of sharing his life.”
WATCH | The full police update identifying the shooter:
FULL | B.C. RCMP provide update on victims, identify suspect in Tumbler Ridge mass shooting
RCMP officials provided an update and took reporters’ questions in Surrey, B.C., on Wednesday, the day after a mass shooting left nine dead, including the suspect, in the northeastern B.C. community of Tumbler Ridge.
Police said they recovered two firearms — a long gun and a modified handgun — at the high school. Neither weapon was registered to Van Rootselaar.
Children between the ages of 12 and 17 can apply for a minor’s firearms licence in Canada, which allows them to borrow non-restricted firearms for approved purposes, like learning about the use of firearms, shooting competitions, hunting or target practice.
According to RCMP, Van Rootselaar had a firearms licence which expired in 2024. An RCMP spokesperson said firearms had been seized two years ago from the family home under the Criminal Code but the lawful owner of the weapons petitioned for their return.
RCMP said they had a history of police attendance at the family residence and some of the calls had been related to mental health issues, including an instance when the suspect was apprehended under the Mental Health Act and taken to hospital for assessment.