Canadian police identified an 18-year-old as the perpetrator who fatally shot six people at the Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and two others at a private residence Tuesday in what is one of Canada’s deadliest mass shootings.
Officials said Jesse Van Rootselaar killed her 39-year-old mother and 11-year-old stepbrother at their home before opening fire at the high school. Five students, aged 12 to 13, and one 39-year-old female educator were killed.
Police said the suspect was born biologically male but had been transitioning to female over the past six years. She was not a student at the school but it was not immediately clear if she had previously studied at Tumbler Ridge Secondary.
A motive for the shooting is unclear, but police said they had made multiple visits to the suspect’s home over the last several years for concerns about mental health issues.
What do we know about the shooter?
The shooter was a resident of Tumbler Ridge who was not currently enrolled in school, Dwayne McDonald, deputy commissioner for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in British Columbia, told reporters in a press conference Wednesday.
McDonald said the suspect dropped out of school roughly four years ago and was not related to any of the victims killed at the school. When asked if the shooter faced “bullying” by students, McDonald said there was no indication of such.
However, it’s unclear if any of the suspect’s family had any connection to the high school.
While exact details about the suspect’s life were not made immediately clear, McDonald said the suspect was born biologically male but had begun transitioning to female approximately six years ago. McDonald said authorities would identify the suspect by her preferred pronouns, which were she/her.
Police in the area knew the suspect, in part because Tumbler Ridge is a close-knit town, but also because of the suspect’s mental health history.
Over the last several years, authorities visited the suspect’s home “on multiple occasions” due to concerns. On different occasions, police apprehended the suspect for a mental health evaluation. In at least one instance, authorities removed firearms from the home.
McDonald added: “I can say that, on different occasions, the suspect was apprehended for assessment and follow-up.”
The shooter held a gun license that expired in 2024 and did not currently have any firearms registered to her. The weapons found with her body after the shooting – described as a long gun and a modified handgun – were not registered to her.
CBC News identified the killer’s mother as Jennifer Strang, 39.
What happened during the shooting at Tumbler Ridge?
Police said the suspect first fatally shot her mother and younger sibling at her home before going to the school; however, authorities received calls about the two in the opposite order.
Officers from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police received a report about an active shooter at the school at around 1:20 p.m. local time. Within two minutes, authorities arrived, David Eby, the Premier of British Columbia, said.
The principal of Tumbler Ridge Secondary School ran through the halls of the school, warning students and faculty to lock their doors. Darian Quist, a 12th-grade student at the school, told CBC News, that he and a dozen other students barricaded themselves in a classroom.
“For a while, I didn’t think anything was going on,” Quist said, until reports on his phone about the shooting began to come through. “We got tables and barricaded the doors, and I believe we sat in there for two hours, two hours and thirty minutes, until members of the RCMP and I believe SWAT came through the door and escorted us at the high school.”
Authorities said most of the people killed at the high school were fatally shot in the school library.
Around 2:47 p.m., authorities received a call to the private residence where the suspect’s mother and stepbrother were found. A young female who lived in the home went to a neighbor’s to call police, McDonald said.
RCMP officers lifted the community-wide alert around 5:45 p.m., stating there were no “outstanding suspects or threats to the public.”
Initially, authorities believed 10 people were killed, but later corrected the record to say nine were killed, including the shooter.
Where is Tumbler Ridge Secondary School?
Tumbler Ridge Secondary School is located in the southern portion of Tumbler Ridge, a remote town in the province of British Columbia, Canada
One resident told the newspaper that cellphone service cuts out just 30 seconds after leaving town because of its isolated location.
However, the town is located in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and is surrounded by an expansive UNESCO-recognized geological park.
Tumbler Ridge was once a major hub for mining, but its two major mines closed permanently in 2000 and 2003.
With a population of just 2,400, the town is a tight-knit community, meaning many of the victims of the shooting are known to most of the town.
“I will know every victim. I’ve been here 19 years, and we’re a small community,” the town’s mayor, Darryl Krakowka, said, according to the BBC. “I don’t call them residents. I call them family.”
King Charles III echoed the sentiment in a statement released Wednesday morning, saying, “In such a closely connected town, every child’s name will be known and every family will be a neighbour.”
British Columbia, where Tumbler Ridge is located, has the highest rates of gun ownership of any area in Canada. According to the Canadian government, around 16 percent of people surveyed in the area reported owning a firearm.
