“Mass Shooting”

Days after a deadly mass shooting devastated a rural town in British Columbia, Canada, police are still searching for clues as to why the suspect, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, would have turned violent, and how she could have carried out her attack.

In Tumbler Ridge, a mining town of roughly 2,700 people, a picture of the teen’s unsettled life was emerging from police and court records and a family statement. Van Rootselaar went mostly by Jesse Strang, the maiden name of her mother, Jennifer Strang. Van Rootselaar was the name of her biological father, a man she barely knew after a difficult split between her parents. Even though her father lived in the same town, they never had much contact.

Van Rootselaar dropped out of school around four years ago, authorities said.

Matt Jacobs, the father of Tumbler Ridge shooting victim Emmett Jacobs, and two surviving children living at Jennifer Strang’s home, has released a statement after the horrific events in the northeastern B.C. community Tuesday.

“The pain I have been feeling from this tragedy is unbearable. I can’t even imagine to explain how lost I feel. I lost my little boy, a man’s pride and joy. Jennifer and I had our differences but she did not deserve this, none of them did. I couldn’t even begin to comprehend the news I had heard on Feb. 10,” the statement reads.

There were signs. There are always warning signs.

Like nearly all horrific episodes of mass violence and domestic violence, the Tumbler Ridge shootings were preventable in hindsight. The killer had a long history of mental health issues, drug use, and police interactions. The signs weren’t just there — they were glaring.

My first column on Tumbler Ridge argued that Canada has a threat-detection problem, not just a violence problem. The subsequent days have only sharpened that diagnosis. As the official timeline firmed up and the reporting deepened, what emerges is not a neat “cause” story but a systems story: a rural community hit by a two-scene escalation, an emergency response that moved fast but arrived late in the only way that matters, and a national information ecosystem that struggled to stay accurate when accuracy was most needed.

The massacre at Tumbler Ridge feels like the militant wing of grievance culture.

There was a double tragedy at Tumbler Ridge in British Columbia this week. The first was the shooting to death of five schoolkids and an education assistant in what ought to have been the sanctuary of their place of learning. The second is that the names and even the bloody fate of those innocents will not be long remembered. Why? Because they had the great misfortune of being murdered by a member of a celebrated minority. By an adherent to that most sainted ideology: transgenderism.

On Tuesday afternoon, Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18, grabbed two firearms from her home and, the authorities in British Columbia said, killed her mother and 11-year-old brother. Then she traveled a mile to the Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and killed five students and one educator before turning her weapon on herself.

The mass shooting, which also left two children injured with gunshot wounds, has sent shock waves across Canada, where such violence is rare, and has devastated the small rural community of 2,400 people.

An investigation of Ms. Van Rootselaar’s online life offers a chronicle of a young person’s gradual descent into mental health crises and radicalization into extreme violence.

Eight innocents were shot dead in B.C.’s northeastern community of Tumbler Ridge on Tuesday; a girl is fighting for her life in hospital, and two dozen more have been injured. This tragedy is one of the worst ever seen in Canadian history — and as it unfolded, police gave the public incorrect information and did not correct themselves afterward.

“Suspect described as female in a dress with brown hair,” read the emergency alert notifying residents of the school shooter, who was later found dead.

RCMP Deputy Commissioner McDonald identifies Jesse Strang (Van Rootslaar), the 18-year-old trans shooter in Tumbler Ridge, BC as "female" then says the killer was "born a biological male" when pressed.

Not properly describing the shooter may have cost lives.

Wokeism Kills! pic.twitter.com/m3nipr6Lnu

— Dacey Media (@chrisdacey) February 11, 2026

CityNews is facing criticism after viewers noticed what appear to be beauty filters on images of Tumbler Ridge transgender school shooter Jesse Van Rootselaar.

TPM's @libbyemmons breaks down the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge:

"All across Canadian press, with very few exceptions, the media has called this person a female, called him a woman. That got picked up all across the world … They're just lying." pic.twitter.com/C3zUULnc36

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) February 12, 2026

More information is emerging about those killed in the Tumbler Ridge, B.C., mass shooting.

On Wednesday, the RCMP said the school victims were a 39-year-old female teacher, and five students — three 12-year-old girls, and two boys, one aged 12 the other 13.

The transgender teenager responsible for Canada’s worst school shooting in nearly 40 years struggled with his physical appearance and was fixated with guns and drugs.

Jesse Van Rootselaar, an 18-year-old from the remote town of Tumbler Ridge who was born a male, wrote online about his 6ft frame and his desire to be a “petite” woman.

He shot dead his mother, Jennifer Strang, and his 11-year-old stepbrother on Tuesday afternoon before walking to his former school 10 minutes away and opening fire on pupils and staff, killing eight before taking his own life.

h/t Auntie Polly

“Let’s not politicize this,” said politicians of all stripes as they cried on cue for the victims of Tuesday’s school shooting at Tumbler Ridge BC that left nine people dead, including the killer, and 27 injured.

Meanwhile …

CBC is looking for the real killers!