OpenAI apologizes over missed warning following Tumbler Ridge mass shooting<\/p>\n
Published 3:00 pm Friday, April 24, 2026<\/p>\n
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has apologized to the community of Tumbler Ridge for failing to alert the police to the online activity of the alleged shooter, Jesse Van Rootselaar, until after the killings.<\/p>\n
The apology came in the form of an April 23 letter addressed to the community and signed by Altman.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am deeply sorry that we did not alert law enforcement to the account that was banned in June,\u201d Altman writes. \u201cWhile I know words can never be enough, I believe an apology is necessary to recognize the harm and irreversible loss your community has suffered.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to RCMP, on Feb 10, 18-year-old Van Rootselaar shot and killed two family members in her home before heading to the local secondary school, where she killed six more people, then herself.<\/p>\n
Van Rootselaar\u2019s OpenAI account had been flagged and banned the summer before, but the company failed to notify the police until after the shooting. The exact nature of the online activity has not been revealed.<\/p>\n
Premier David Eby met with Altman and Tumbler Ridge Mayor Darryl Krakowka in March, securing the promise of an apology. The sides also discussed working together to develop requirements to force companies to disclose this type of information to the police in the future.<\/p>\n
Altman reiterated his intent to work toward this objective in the letter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI reaffirm the commitment I made to the mayor and the premier to find ways to prevent tragedies like this in the future,\u201d Altman writes. \u201cGoing forward, our focus will continue to be on working with all levels of government to help ensure something like this never happens again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eby shared his thoughts about the letter on social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe apology is necessary, and yet grossly insufficient for the devastation done to the families of Tumbler Ridge,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will continue to stand with Mayor Darryl Krakowa and the people of Tumbler Ridge in the difficult work ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
The police investigation into the shootings is in its \u201cfinal stages,\u201d and many details remain unanswered, including exactly what firearms were used.<\/p>\n
Police had confiscated and returned firearms to the home the year before the shooting. It is still unclear why they were given back, considering Van Rootselaar\u2019s well-documented mental health issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OpenAI apologizes over missed warning following Tumbler Ridge mass shooting Published 3:00 pm Friday, April 24, 2026 OpenAI…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":{"0":"post-630025","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-surrey","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-surrey"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630025","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=630025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}