The suspect in a Canada school shooting was an 18-year-old who had a history of police visits to her home to check on her mental health, authorities said Wednesday, a day after the attack that killed eight people in a remote part of British Columbia.
Police said Jesse Van Rootselaar was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted wound following the assault on a school in the small mountain community of Tumbler Ridge.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald said Van Rootselaar first killed her mother and stepbrother at the family home before attacking the nearby school. She had a history of mental health contacts with police, he said.
37 Comments
ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net · 38 pts · 213d
Police removed the guns family owned but the legal owner petitioned to get them back. Should be held responsible (if still alive) in my opinion.
unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de · 23 pts · 213d
Nevermind the fact they always seem to already know of the suspects before they commit their acts.
corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 213d
Yeah. We have these rules around proof and actionable Intel before the cops can just go grab someone. They're not ICE. But it doesn't mean the cops don't know about a person.
unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de · 2 pts · 212d
Yes of course they cant just yoink people, but then whats the point of more surveillance? If they cant legally prevent it anyways, then its pointless.
SarahFromOz@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 214d
Is this the first case of a female school shooter?
BCsven@lemmy.ca · 44 pts · 214d
Trans woman shooter, so conservatives will be triggered
Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works · 18 pts · 213d
Despite the fact that trans people are statistically under-represented among mass shooters.
But the right never lets facts get in the way of their feelings.
NotSteve_@piefed.ca · 8 pts · 213d
It started immediately :(:
After Tumbler Ridge shooting, ... https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/tumbler-ridge-shooting-trans-community-false-claims-9.7085078
ChicoSuave@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 214d
January 29, 1979 in San Diego is the earliest time I recall
mysticpickle@lemmy.ca · 8 pts · 213d
Trans, Republicans going bananas about this 😬
voicesarefree@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 214d
No. Wisconsin Abundant Life Christian School, in 2024. Not sure about before that.
the_crotch@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 213d
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Don%27t_Like_Mondays
DrivebyHaiku@lemmy.ca · 7 pts · 213d
You know that Boomtown Rats song "I don't like Mondays" it's based off a female school shooter from the 70's but yes female school shooters are rare. Trans femme shooters are even rarer with the majority trans shooters being trans men.
Spree killing is almost entirely a male coded pastime. Serial killers have slightly higher rates of female participation. This event is quite a statistical anomaly. Canada has only had 10 school related shootings that counted as spree killings in its entire history and this one was commited by a demographic that is such a narrow slice of the pie chart of total spree killers worldwide that it is barely a hairswidth slice. Winning the lottery thrice has better odds.
LittleBorat3@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 212d
The facts don't matter to certain people. Obviously trans bad, trans will shoot more people, have to be stopped Blabla.
It's obviously not the guns, it's the people the medication they are on etc.
bitchkat@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 213d
second one in the past year.
ArgumentativeMonotheist@lemmy.world · -3 pts · 213d
FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca · 12 pts · 213d
It was a woman? That doesn't happen often
wampus@lemmy.ca · 10 pts · 213d
Out of the loop? trans woman. So verbiage may vary.
FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca · 19 pts · 213d
I didn't realize she was trans when I wrote this comment. I hope people don't think I'm questioning her gender identity. I'm just saying mass shootings aren't often done by women.
village604@adultswim.fan · -4 pts · 213d
I guess the question is whether she was pre or post hormone therapy. Testosterone is a hell of a drug.
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 213d
you will set off a bunch of rednecks calling her a woman.
otp@sh.itjust.works · -1 pts · 213d
Did Canada have its first school shooting of the year before the US? It's the first one I'm hearing about this year anywhere in the world!
funkajunk@lemmy.world · 58 pts · 213d
There's been 45 mass shootings in the USA so far in 2026, so nothing seems to have changed.
https://massshootingtracker.site/data/?year=2026
M137@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 213d
They asked about school shootings, not mass shooting.
funkajunk@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 213d
It doesn't really matter where a shooting takes place IMO, I was mostly commenting on gun violence not getting better in the US.
WhiteOakBayou@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 213d
It does matter where a shooting takes place though. Random violence is scary and makes people feel less safe. Gang disputes (how a lot of mass shootings occur) are generally accepted as a consequence of gang members being unable to seek redress in the courts. Non involved parties do get killed in gang shootings of course but the violence tends to be localized and amongst people who know each other. That is less scary for the average person who does not live in a known gang area.
funkajunk@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 213d
Hunh? Because it's "less scary" for some people, it's okay?
I'm not sure I'm getting your point.
WhiteOakBayou@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 213d
You said it doesn't matter where a shooting takes place. I never said any shooting was okay. I said that it does matter where they take place as shootings in different places are perceived differently and have different societal impacts.
funkajunk@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 213d
I was talking about overall gun violence in the US, but you're talking about how it's "perceived differently", presumably if you're in a suburb or something. It's kind of a non sequitur.
RaoulDuke25@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 7 pts · 213d
USA USA USA
venusaur@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 213d
And potentially a woman!
ArgumentativeMonotheist@lemmy.world · -13 pts · 213d
You're all a bit too insane and unstable to have guns safely.
NotSteve_@piefed.ca · 15 pts · 213d
Canada has very little gun violence overall and the gun violence we do have is usually done with guns smuggled in from the US...
It's telling that when a mass shooting does happen here, it makes world news
k0e3@lemmy.ca · 10 pts · 213d
Seriously, I don't mean to sound holier than thou, but the US has a mass shooting like every other day. There's just simply no contest.
Bane_Killgrind@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 8 pts · 213d
You mean one or more per day, not every other day.
k0e3@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 213d
According to a person in another thread, they've had 45 so far in 2026, so I think it's actually like one a day. That's crazy.
Bane_Killgrind@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 213d
Yeah that site has a data download, so we could also check day of week clustering as well.