By David Ljunggren, Reuters
This photograph provided by local journalist Trent Ernst shows a place near the middle school and high school building where a shooting took place, leaving at least nine people dead in the small town of Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, on February 10, 2026.
Photo: AFP PHOTO / TRENT ERNST
Canadian police have identified the person who carried out a school massacre as an 18-year-old woman with mental health issues but did not give a motive for one of the worst mass shootings in Canada’s history.
The killer, who police named as Jesse Van Rootselaar, committed suicide after the shooting on Tuesday (local time) in Tumbler Ridge, a remote community in the Pacific province of British Columbia.
Police revised the death toll down to nine, including Van Rootselaar, from the initially reported 10.
On more than one occasion, Van Rootselaar had been apprehended under the provincial Mental Health Act for an assessment, said Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald, commander of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in British Columbia.
She once attended the school but dropped out four years ago.
“Police had attended that (family) residence on multiple occasions over the past several years, dealing with concerns of mental health with respect to our suspect,” McDonald said.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Photo: Dave Chan / AFP
Unlike the United States, school shootings are almost unheard of in Canada, and federal politicians initially struggled to maintain their composure.
“We will get through this. We will learn from this,” a visibly upset Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters.
Carney, who at one point looked close to tears, postponed a trip to Europe and ordered flags on all government buildings be flown at half-mast for the next seven days.
Hours later, legislators in the House of Commons observed a moment of silence and listened as a sombre Carney said the killings had left the country in shock and mourning.
“It is a town of miners, teachers, construction workers – families who have built their lives there, people who have always shown up for each other there … Tumbler Ridge represents the very best of Canada,” he said.
McDonald said Van Rootselaar, who was born male but began to identify as a female six years ago, had first killed her mother, 39, and 11-year-old stepbrother at the family home.
She then went to the school, where she shot a 39-year-old woman teacher as well as three 12-year-old female students and two male students, one aged 12 and one aged 13.
“We do believe the suspect acted alone … it would be too early to speculate on motive,” he told a press conference.
Several prominent world leaders sent messages of condolence. King Charles, Canada’s head of state, said he was “profoundly shocked and saddened” by the deaths.
Shooting among deadliest in Canadian history
The shooting ranks among the deadliest in Canadian history. Canada has stricter gun laws than the United States, but Canadians can own firearms with a license.
In April 2020, a 51-year-old man disguised in a police uniform and driving a fake police car shot and killed 22 people in a 13-hour rampage in the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia, before police killed him at a gas station.
In Canada’s worst school shooting, in December 1989, a gunman killed 14 female students and wounded 13 at the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, Quebec, before committing suicide.
“There’s not a word in the English language that’s strong enough to describe the level of devastation that this community has experienced,” said Larry Neufeld, a local provincial legislator.
“It’s going to take a significant amount of effort and a significant amount of courage to repair that terror,” he told CBC News.
– Reuters