The person behind one of British Columbia's worst mass killings has been identified as an 18-year-old who killed family members at home, then gunned down students randomly at a school before firing at police and killing herself as officers closed in.
Among the dead: five students of Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, an educator, and the shooter's mother and stepbrother, who both died in the home they had shared with Jesse Van Rootselaar in Tumbler Ridge, B.C.
Police found Van Rootselaar dead at the school from a self-inflicted wound.
RCMP Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald said Van Rootselaar was assigned male at birth but started transitioning six years ago, before quitting school about two years later. She had a history of involvement with police related to her mental health, he said.
McDonald told a news conference the tragedy began Tuesday when Van Rootselaar killed her mother and stepbrother at their home before heading to the school.
There, she opened fire on students and staff alike. A 39-year-old female teacher, three girls aged 12 and two boys aged 12 and 13 were killed, apparently at random. One body was found in the stairwell. Others were in the library.
As darkness began to fall over the remote community in northeastern B.C. Wednesday evening, a day after the tragedy, a couple of hundred people gathered for a candlelit vigil at an outdoor plaza about a block from the school.
There were tears and a prayer.
"In our grief, may we hold one another closer," one prayer leader told the crowd, bundled up against the cold. "Let us remember them," he said of those killed.
District of Tumbler Ridge Mayor Darryl Krakowka told the vigil that "it's OK to cry."
"We used to think that's a sign of weakness. It's not," he said, a sob catching in his throat. "It's a sign of strength."
One by one or in pairs, community members placed flowers and stuffed toys at the base of a tree in the centre of the plaza, encircled by mourners holding candles.
B.C. Premier David Eby was among them. Later, tears filled his eyes at a news conference as he described how a 12-year-old girl named Maya had gone to school on Tuesday "full of joy and love" but was now "clinging to life in hospital."
Maya Gebala "needs a miracle," her mother Cia Edmonds said in a social media post. She shared a photo of her daughter lying gravely injured in a hospital bed.
Tributes and condolences poured in from around the world after the shootings in the remote former coal mining boom town of about 2,700 residents.
The school stood behind barricades Wednesday, the grounds cordoned off with yellow police tape.
Residents grappled to comprehend a day that began normally but ended with parents rushing to the local community centre to find out if their children were still alive.
"This is a deeply distressing incident where nine individuals have senselessly lost their lives," McDonald said.
"We do believe the suspect acted alone."
McDonald said police got the call about an active shooter at 1:20 p.m. Within two minutes, officers were at the school, where they had to duck from gunfire.
About 100 students were hustled out of the building. Video shows them rushing out in T-shirts, hands up, and speed-walking across the parking lot amid mounds of snow as alarms blared and a helicopter clattered overhead.
Gebala and a 19-year-old woman were airlifted to hospital in serious condition.
When police entered the school, they found Van Rootselaar dead, presumably by her own hand.
McDonald said it didn't appear Van Rootselaar knew the victims.
Afterward, police found the bodies of her mother, 39, and her 11-year-old stepbrother in the family home.
Police had originally listed the death toll at 10, but McDonald updated the figure to nine, saying one of those thought to have succumbed to their injuries on the way to hospital was still alive.
McDonald said police recovered two guns, a "long gun and a modified handgun." Officers were still investigating the weapons to determine who owned them and whether they were legal, he said.
McDonald said Van Rootselaar previously held a gun licence, but it expired in 2024, and she no longer had any guns registered in her name.
Police, he said, had a history of involvement with Van Rootselaar.
He said firearms had previously been seized at her home under the Criminal Code, but they were later returned to "the lawful owner" after that person petitioned to get them back. McDonald didn't specify who the lawful owner was or if the guns had been seized from Van Rootselaar.
He said she had previously been apprehended under the provincial Mental Health Act and hospitalized "in some circumstances."
McDonald said the last time police had gone to the home was in the spring of last year. He didn't provide details on what happened at the time, but said the call was in line with past instances and concerns for Van Rootselaar's mental health.
As news of the deaths spread, condolences poured in from across the province and country, and from as far away as Europe, Asia, the Olympic Games in Italy and war-torn Ukraine.
In Ottawa, Prime Minister Mark Carney ordered flags lowered to half-mast on government buildings and the Peace Tower for seven days. "Parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, are waking up this morning, without one of their loved ones. It is a difficult time. Canada is grieving, grieving with you," he said.
Expressions of sympathy also came from King Charles, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In Canada, government events were cancelled from coast to coast to coast, including Thursday's throne speech to open the B.C. legislature. Thursday will be an official day of mourning in the province.
Back in Tumbler Ridge, the B.C. and Canadian flags were also at half-mast at the town hall, a short distance from the school.
Local pastor Gerald Krauss of the New Life Assembly said Wednesday that when he received an alert about an active shooter on his phone, he left his church and went straight to the community centre.
He comforted surviving students and, later, parents who were searching for their children. Krauss didn't return home until 4 a.m.
"It's devastating," he said in an interview.
"There are children that are church children. There are children that are hockey children. Children that are basketball children. People are from everywhere in our town, but they all belong to our community and everyone knows everyone."
For parents, it was a trip that could never be imagined but was impossible to refuse.
"All of the parents came to the community centre looking for their children," Krauss said.
"Some found their children.
"And some did not."
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jesse Boily
