{"id":526848,"date":"2026-03-10T13:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T13:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/526848\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T13:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T13:16:09","slug":"family-of-12-year-old-injured-in-tumbler-ridge-mass-shooting-sues-openai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/526848\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of 12-year-old injured in Tumbler Ridge mass shooting sues OpenAI"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

An RCMP vehicle sits outside Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., on Feb. 13.Christinne Muschi\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The family of a 12-year-old girl who was critically injured in the Tumbler Ridge school shooting has filed a civil claim against OpenAI. <\/p>\n

The notice was filed Monday in B.C. Supreme Court by Cia Edmonds, on behalf of herself and her two daughters, Maya and Dahlia Gebala.<\/p>\n

The civil claim draws on media reports and statements of public officials and OpenAI representatives to argue that the tech company had specific knowledge of the shooter\u2019s violent intentions but did not warn relevant law enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n

The company has faced widespread criticism since it was revealed that, months before the Feb. 10 shooting, OpenAI had flagged, but not reported to authorities, worrying interactions<\/a> between the shooter and its ChatGPT chatbot.<\/p>\n

B.C. groups seek to ban children from using AI after Tumbler Ridge mass shooting<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe purpose of this lawsuit is to learn the whole truth about how and why the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting happened, to impose accountability, to seek redress for harms and losses, and to help prevent another mass-shooting atrocity in Canada,\u201d said a statement from the law firm Rice Parsons Leoni & Elliott LLP, which is representing the family.<\/p>\n

Maya was shot three times at close range, with one bullet entering her head above her left eye, a second striking her neck and a third grazing her cheek and earlobe, according to the civil claim.<\/p>\n

She suffered a catastrophic traumatic brain injury, permanent cognitive and physical disability, right-sided hemiplegia, scarring and physical deformities, depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the claim said. The girl remains in BC Children\u2019s Hospital, her long-term prognosis unknown. <\/p>\n

Maya\u2019s sister Dahlia, who was also at the school but not physically injured in the shooting, suffered PTSD, anxiety, depression and sleep disturbances, the civil claim said. Their mother, Ms. Edmonds, suffered the same injuries as Dahlia, resulting in pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, loss of earnings and other negative impacts.<\/p>\n

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Globe and Mail on Monday. <\/p>\n

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will apologize to Tumbler Ridge families, David Eby says<\/a><\/p>\n

Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18, fatally shot eight people, including six children, at her family residence and the local high school before turning a gun on herself. <\/p>\n

The Wall Street Journal reported that, while using ChatGPT in June, the shooter \u201cdescribed scenarios involving gun violence over several days,\u201d which were flagged by an automated review system. About a dozen employees debated taking action, with some interpreting the writings as an indication of potential for real-world violence and urging leaders to alert Canadian law enforcement, the WSJ reported. The company ultimately did not contact authorities.<\/p>\n

The company has since made some changes that it says would flag<\/a> the interaction for law enforcement if it happened today. B.C. Premier David Eby, who met with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, said Mr. Altman was prepared to apologize<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The civil claim accuses the company of rushing its proprietary large language model to the mass global market without adequate safety studies and deploying it knowing it contained \u201chazardous defects.\u201d The plaintiffs are seeking undisclosed punitive damages, saying OpenAI\u2019s wrongful conduct \u201cis reprehensible and morally repugnant to the Plantiffs and to the community at large.\u201d <\/p>\n

The allegations have not been tested in court. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: An RCMP vehicle sits outside Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in Tumbler Ridge, B.C.,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,43,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,41,39,42,40,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":{"0":"post-526848","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-headlines","31":"tag-life-news","32":"tag-lifestyle","33":"tag-local-news","34":"tag-manitoba","35":"tag-national-news","36":"tag-new-brunswick","37":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","38":"tag-news","39":"tag-northwest-territories","40":"tag-nova-scotia","41":"tag-nunavut","42":"tag-ontario","43":"tag-pei","44":"tag-photos","45":"tag-political-news","46":"tag-political-opinion","47":"tag-politics","48":"tag-politics-news","49":"tag-quebec","50":"tag-sports-news","51":"tag-technology","52":"tag-top-news","53":"tag-top-stories","54":"tag-topnews","55":"tag-topstories","56":"tag-travel","57":"tag-trudeau","58":"tag-us-news","59":"tag-world-news","60":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526848","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=526848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}