Good morning. Tumbler Ridge is waking up to a profoundly changed world after Tuesday’s deadly school shooting. Here is the latest.
A makeshift memorial near the site of the mass shooting.JESSE WINTER/The Globe and Mail
Tumbler RidgeA country in grief
The latest
• RCMP have identified the Tumbler Ridge shooter as 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, a local resident of the small mining community in northeastern B.C. At a press conference yesterday, Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald said police had visited the shooter’s home multiple times over the past few years for mental-health concerns.
• Police also revised the death toll from 10 to nine, including the shooter, correcting information provided on Tuesday. The victims include five students and an educator at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, as well as the shooter’s mother and younger stepbrother.
• Responding officers – who arrived at the school two minutes after reports of an active shooter – recovered a long gun and a modified handgun from the scene. McDonald said there was no indication at this point that anyone at the school had been specifically targeted.
• “There’s not a word in the English language that is strong enough to describe the level of devastation,” Larry Neufeld, the MLA for Peace River South, said yesterday after flying into Tumbler Ridge. He added that every first responder involved would have known the victims.
• Several hundred people gathered for a vigil last night, leaving flowers around a spruce tree fewer than 100 steps from the school.
The high school in Tumbler Ridge yesterday.Jennifer Gauthier/Reuters
The victims
• RCMP have not yet released the names of the eight people killed by the shooter. McDonald said the victims at the school include a 39-year-old female educator, three 12-year-old female students and two male students, aged 12 and 13. Most of the victims were found in their school library.
• McDonald said responding officers then discovered the bodies of the shooter’s 39-year-old mother and 11-year-old stepbrother at their family home. Police believe the incident occurred first. They were called to the residence by a neighbour, who had been alerted by a female youth related to the victims, McDonald said.
• Maya Gebala, 12, sustained critical injuries in the shooting and was brought to a Vancouver hospital for care. Cia Edmonds posted on Facebook that her daughter had suffered gunshot wounds to the head and neck. “This doesn’t even feel real,” she wrote. As of last night, an online fundraiser for Gebala had received more than $100,000 in donations.
The shooter
• Police, friends and family said that the shooter was a troubled teenager who had received psychiatric treatment in the past and who lived in a home where guns were present. The 18-year-old had not attended school in four years.
• RCMP said the shooter was born male and began transitioning to female about six years ago. Well before yesterday’s press conference, however, speculation about the shooter’s gender identity spread across social media, amplified by Elon Musk on X in a series of false claims.
• McDonald said police believe the shooter acted alone, and that there were no other suspects. “We don’t have an idea yet as to motive,” he added.
A moment of silence in the House of Commons.David Kawai/Reuters
The reaction
• Prime Minister Mark Carney fought back tears as he spoke to reporters yesterday morning, telling Tumbler Ridge that “the nation mourns with you. Canada stands by you.” He cancelled his trip to a security conference in Munich and ordered flags flown at half-mast for seven days.
• After a moment of silence in the House of Commons, federal party leaders each shared their grief and offered support to the tiny community. Carney will stay in Ottawa, while Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree met with B.C. Premier David Eby in Tumbler Ridge yesterday.
• World leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron, sent messages of shock and condolence. Canada’s head of state, King Charles III, extended his “deepest possible sympathy” to the families of the victims.
More from The Globe
• News: A shop teacher at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School described the anxious hours waiting for the lockdown to end.
• Opinion: Marsha Lederman thanks the people who leapt to help on a day of horror.
• Advice: A child psychologist explains how to talk to kids about the Tumbler Ridge shooting.
• Podcast: Globe reporters Matthew Scace and Alanna Smith speak to The Decibel about a community trying to making sense of what happened to its town.
Olympic Games‘We just left everything out on that table.’Open this photo in gallery:
Ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier are first-time Olympic medalists.Stephanie Scarbrough/The Associated Press
With their bronze medal, ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier put Canadian figure skating back on the Olympic podium for the first time in eight years, after the country was shut out at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games. Elsewhere in Milan Cortina, some athletes chose to sweat the small stuff while another dragged out his dirty laundry instead. For our latest Olympics coverage, go to tgam.ca/olympics-daily.
The WrapWhat else we’re following
At home: Canada would like to see NATO’s new Arctic Sentry mission become permanent as part of a greater focus on the North.
Abroad: The U.S. House of Representatives voted to end some of the tariffs on Canada – though even if the resolution passes the Senate, it’ll almost certainly be vetoed by Donald Trump.
Arts: Dawson’s Creek star James Van Der Beek has died at 48 after a battle with colorectal cancer.
Business: Couche-Tard unveiled a new back-to-basics strategy to boost growth in a shaky retail environment.
Planes: Air Canada has ordered eight Airbus A350-1000s as part of an expansion of its international network.
Jays: New Toronto pitcher Dylan Cease has an impressive beard, an even more impressive contract and a lot riding on his shoulders. (He doesn’t seem fazed.)