{"id":472809,"date":"2026-02-13T17:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T17:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/472809\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T17:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T17:34:08","slug":"canada-school-deaths-suspect-created-shooting-simulator-on-gaming-platform-tumbler-ridge-school-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/472809\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada school deaths suspect created shooting simulator on gaming platform | Tumbler Ridge school shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 18-year-old suspect in a high school shooting in British Columbia had previously created a mass shooting simulator on the gaming platform Roblox<\/a>, it has been revealed.<\/p>\n

The simulator, set in what appeared to be a virtual shopping mall, allowed users \u2013 represented as Roblox-style avatars \u2013 to pick up weapons and shoot other players, 404 Media<\/a> reported on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Users first identified the suspect\u2019s Roblox account and game on Kiwi Farms, a site known for<\/a> doxing and trolling. After the shooting on Wednesday, Canadian police identified the suspect as Jesse Van Rootselaar.<\/p>\n

Tumbler Ridge map<\/a><\/p>\n

In a statement to the Guardian, Roblox said: \u201cWe have removed the user account connected to this horrifying incident as well as any content associated with the suspect. We are committed to fully supporting law enforcement in their investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The California-based company added that the \u201cMall experience\u201d was accessible only through Roblox Studio, a separate app used by developers to create games. As a result, the simulator recorded just seven visits.<\/p>\n

Roblox also said it uses a combination of AI and a team of safety specialists to review content that is uploaded to its platform before it is shown to another user.<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s attack \u2013 one of Canada\u2019s deadliest school shootings since the 1989 \u00c9cole Polytechnique massacre when a gunman killed 14 women \u2013 left nine people dead<\/a> in Tumbler Ridge, a small coalmining community.<\/p>\n

The victims included a teacher, five students, the suspect\u2019s mother and her stepbrother. The suspect, who reportedly had a history of mental health issues, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time Roblox has been criticised for its content. The platform allows its millions of users to create and share their own video games \u2013 many of them benign, featuring cartoon fish and camping trips<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, it has also allegedly made Jeffrey Epstein-themed content available to children, and is facing a lawsuit<\/a> in California for facilitating the sexual exploitation and assault of minors.<\/p>\n

The links between violent video games and mass shootings have been long-debated<\/a> and remain inconclusive<\/a>, with large studies finding at most a small correlation between gaming and real-world aggression.<\/p>\n

However, though games may not cause violence, recent incidents underscore the growing trend of \u201cgamified violence\u201d: extremists adopting elements of video game design in the context of real-world attacks.<\/p>\n

This is becoming increasingly common<\/a>. The attackers in the 2019 mosque shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, broadcast their massacre on Twitch, a platform that allows users to livestream themselves playing video games; as did the shooter in the racially motivated attack in Buffalo<\/a>, New York, in 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 18-year-old suspect in a high school shooting in British Columbia had previously created a mass shooting simulator…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-472809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}