Canada mass shooting: Toll revised to 8; mother among victims as police identify transgender female attacker

Eight people were shot dead in the remote town of Tumbler Ridge in Canada’s British Columbia province on Tuesday after an 18-year-old transgender female carried out attacks at her home and a local high school before dying by suicide, federal police confirmed on Wednesday.

Authorities identified the shooter as Jesse Van Rootselaar and clarified that the earlier reported death toll had been revised after a critically injured woman was found to be alive. Including the gunman’s suicide, nine people died in total.

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The violence has stunned the small mining community of about 2,400 residents and triggered national mourning in a country where large-scale shootings are rare.

What happened in Tumbler Ridge?

Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald of the Canadian federal police said the attack began at the shooter’s residence, where her mother and stepbrother were killed. She then made her way to the town’s high school and opened fire.

Officers reached the school within two minutes of receiving the emergency call. Inside the library and along a staircase, they found a woman educator and five students – three girls and two boys aged between 12 and 13 – dead.

Van Rootselaar had left the school around four years ago, McDonald said.

Police had initially announced a higher casualty figure. However, on Wednesday, officials corrected the number of victims to eight after determining that a woman who had been rushed to the hospital with severe injuries had survived and remains in serious condition.

Police history and weapons questions

Authorities disclosed that they had previously responded to calls at the shooter’s home related to mental health concerns. In some of those instances, weapons were involved. McDonald said firearms had earlier been seized but were later returned after the lawful owner sought their release through due process.

The case is likely to renew scrutiny around how such decisions are assessed in situations involving mental health flags.

National reaction and international response

Addressing Parliament, Prime Minister Mark Carney said the killings in Tumbler Ridge “left our nation in shock and all of us in 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,” he said.

The tragedy reverberated across the tightly knit community and beyond, unsettling a country known for relatively strict firearm regulations compared to its neighbour, the United States.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended condolences in a post on X, writing, “India stands in solidarity with the people of Canada in this moment of profound grief”.

A rare but painful chapter in Canada’s history

Mass shootings are uncommon in Canada. The last major school-related attack dates back to Montreal in 1989, when 14 people were killed. In 2020, the country witnessed a devastating two-day killing spree in Nova Scotia, where a gunman shot 13 people and killed nine others by setting fires.

In the United States, two recent school-linked attacks have involved transgender individuals — one in Nashville in 2023 and another in Minneapolis last year during a church prayer service attended by children.

Investigators continue to examine the motive behind Tuesday’s rampage as Tumbler Ridge begins the difficult process of grieving.