Live Updates: Police Identify Suspect in Mass Shooting in Canada

PinnedUpdated Here’s the latest.Canadian police were searching for a motive Wednesday for one of the country’s deadliest mass shootings, while crucial questions remained unanswered about what unfolded a day earlier in the small, close-knit community of Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia.The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said on Tuesday afternoon that 10 bodies had been recovered: those of six victims and the suspected shooter at the local secondary school, a person who died while being transported from the school to a hospital, and two others at a private residence. In addition, officials said, at least 25 people were wounded.“This morning, families in Tumbler Ridge British Columbia woke to a different world,” Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Wednesday, speaking in Parliament. “Parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters began this day as their first day on earth without someone they loved dearly.”Switching to French, Mr. Carney, who teared up earlier speaking to reporters, said, “parents in Tumbler Ridge sent their children off to school on Tuesday, and some will never be able to hug their children again.”Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Conservative Party and of the parliamentary opposition, said: “No parent should ever have to fear that their child will not return home from school. No parent should ever bury their own child.”The party leaders who addressed Parliament steered clear, for now, of politics, saying it was instead a time for grieving. “There is no partisanship on this day,” Mr. Poilievre said.The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the suspect died of a self-inflicted wound but did not release a name. An early alert issued by the police had described the person believed to be behind the attack as a “female in a dress with brown hair,” but they have not since provided any more information on the person’s identity.“We believe we’ve been able to identify the shooter, but for privacy reasons and obviously for the conduct of the investigation, we’re not releasing that information” yet, Superintendent Ken Floyd of the R.C.M.P. said in a video news conference on Tuesday.In addition, he said, “we are not in a place now to be able to understand why and what may have motivated this tragedy.”Mr. Carney, obliquely acknowledging the widespread desire for more information, saying, “We must allow law enforcement time and space to do their work.”The scale of the shooting is devastating for the remote town of just 2,400 people, on the eastern flank of the Rockies, where few people are strangers. Tumbler Ridge boomed and then declined in the last century along with the local coal mining industry, and has been attempting a comeback based on outdoor tourism.“It’s a town of miners, teachers, construction workers, families who have built their lives there, people who have always shown up for each other,” through recessions, wildfires and other crises, Mr. Carney said. “Tumbler Ridge represents the very best of Canada: resilient, compassionate and strong.”Here’s what else to know:Canadian leader: Mr. Carney suspended his planned travel to Germany, where he was scheduled to give a speech Friday at the Munich Security Conference, an annual global defense and foreign policy forum. Messages of support and condolences poured in from global leaders.Royal reaction: King Charles III, who is the head of state of Canada, issued a statement on Wednesday together with his wife, Queen Camilla: “We can only express our deepest possible sympathy to the families who are grieving the unimaginable loss of their loved ones and those awaiting news from hospital,” they said.Rare mass shooting: The violence in Tumbler Ridge was the second mass casualty event in British Columbia in the past twelve months, but a rare mass shooting for Canada. The deadliest in the country’s history took place in Nova Scotia, in 2020, when a gunman killed 22 other people in multiple locations, then killed himself.Most of the students who were killed were found in the library and one was located in the stairwell, McDonald said. He added that the first shooting happened at the residence. “Police had attended that residence on a number of occasions over the last several years dealing with concerns of mental health with our suspect,” McDonald said, referring to the home where the suspect’s mother and stepbrother were found dead. On one of those occasions, “firearms were seized.”“We don’t have an idea yet as to motive,” McDonald said.Police have not identified the firearms and specific ownership of the firearms at this time. The shooter had a license that expired in 2024 and did not have any firearms registered to her. She dropped out of school about four years ago, police said.The adult woman and male youth found dead in the private residence were the mother and stepbrother of the shooter, the police said.ImageCredit...Trent Ernst/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesDwayne McDonald, a deputy commissioner at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in British Columbia, said the suspect was born as a biological male and chose to identify as a female. Van Rootselaar chose to begin to transition to female about six years ago, McDonald told reporters.Police have identified the female shooter as 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar. McDonald, the deputy commissioner, said there was active gunfire when police arrived on the scene. Officers found Van Rootselaar dead by a self-inflicted gunshot wound shortly after.Dwayne McDonald, a deputy commissioner at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in British Columbia, said members from the local police detachment arrived within two minutes of the 911 call. A long gun and a modified handgun was found by police, McDonald said.Addressing Canada’s Parliament, Prime Minister Mark Carney paid tribute to the “teachers and school staff who acted with extraordinary courage to protect the children in their care.” He also noted the families in Tumbler Ridge who “woke to a different world” because they lost someone they loved.Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada has cancelled his trip to Germany, where he was due to address the Munich Security Conference on Friday, his office said.ImageCredit...Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press, via Associated PressA delegation of senior Canadian government officials will travel to Tumbler Ridge on Wednesday, including the minister for public safety and the premier of the province of British Columbia, Mr. Carney’s office said.Nicole Noksana, the president of the parent advisory council at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, said the community is left in “unimaginable heartbreak” and struggling to come to grips with the attacks. “There are no words that can ease the fear and pain that events like this cause in a school community,” she said in a statement.Students and teachers hid in Tumbler Ridge Secondary School for hours during the shooting.ImageJarbas Noronha, a shop teacher, outside Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in 2024. He hid with 15 students behind locked doors on Tuesday.Credit...Jarbas NoronhaJarbas Noronha was teaching his 12th grade auto mechanic shop class how to change oil Tuesday at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School. Students with good attendance are sometimes allowed to work on their own vehicles, and one student went to the parking lot to fetch his car.He instead came back saying he heard gunshots outside, Mr. Noronha said. About two minutes later, the school’s principal, Stacie Gruntman, came to the door of the shop, shouting “Lockdown!”The shop is far from the school’s main entrance and the principal’s office. Mr. Noronha said he and 15 students locked the hallway door and the two garage doors that opened into the school yard. Two metal benches were used as barricades.“We were in the safest part of the school,” he said in a phone interview. “If someone tried to break in through the hallway door, we would run to the yard through the garage doors.”Mr. Noronha said he kept his eye on a large wall clock in the shop. His class stayed in the garage for more than two hours until police officers knocked on the garage door and escorted them to the school’s recreational center.It was not until Mr. Noronha reached his home around 7 p.m. that he learned of the extent of the violence. It was the third deadliest shooting in Canada’s history. Seven people were found dead in the school, including the suspected shooter, according to the authorities. Two other people were found dead in a local residence and another person died while being transported to a hospital, the police said.The shooting has shaken the residents of Tumbler Ridge, a remote town of 2,400 people in northeastern British Columbia. Mr. Noronha said he has taught auto mechanic and wood shop at the high school for two years, after moving there from his native Brazil in 2022 to be with his wife, a Tumbler Ridge resident.“This is a hunting town. Everyone has guns here,” he said.The police have not provided the identities of the suspected shooter and the victims, and they have also not commented on the shooter’s motive. Officers were still notifying the victims’ families, Premier David Eby of British Columbia said in a news briefing on Tuesday night.Students and staff were held in the recreational center as the authorities conducted a head count, Mr. Noronha said. A shelter-in-place order for the town was lifted at 6:47 p.m. and parents were allowed to pick up their children.The school district has closed both Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and Tumbler Ridge Elementary School for the rest of the week. Provincial authorities said trauma counselors would be sent to the town to support the community.“I’m quite calm, but I still don’t know how many students were hurt,” Mr. Noronha said. He added that Ms. Gruntman, the principal, told teachers they would be notified by email when the school would reopen.“I don’t think many students are in a condition to go back now,” he said.Canada launched major gun reforms in 2020 after its deadliest mass shooting.ImageA makeshift memorial in Portapique, Nova Scotia, for the victims of Canada’s deadliest mass shooting in 2020.Credit...Tim Krochak/ReutersThe fatal shootings in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, on Tuesday came as Canada’s federal government faces hurdles in a national gun buyback program that has proved politically unpopular and a logistical quagmire.The country’s deadliest mass shooting, in Nova Scotia, precipitated the creation of the program after 23 people, including the attacker, died in April 2020.Days after that attack, Justin Trudeau, the prime minister at the time, announced a ban on 1,500 types of assault-style weapons. In the subsequent years, the federal government has gradually widened its gun reform project, announcing a freeze on handgun sales and expanding the list of firearms covered under the initial ban.The police have not released any information about the firearms used in the Tumbler Ridge shootings on Tuesday, or how the suspected shooter came to obtain them.By far the most contentious part of Canada’s firearms reform has been a multimillion-dollar gun buyback program targeting owners of “military-style assault rifles,” which include a wide range of long guns and rifles, like those used to hunt animals.The gun buyback has been a politically divisive issue in Canada, where firearm ownership is already strictly regulated.Handguns are the most common type of firearm used in crimes, according to federal data. In cities with higher rates of gun violence, the vast majority of firearms linked to crimes are traced back to the United States.Gun owners and lobby groups have criticized the buyback for putting an undue emphasis on rifles, which are an essential part of life in many rural areas. They are common on Indigenous reserves where the hunting of animals like caribou and moose is an important source of food and community engagement.Some of the critics come from within Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal government. Gary Anandasangaree, Canada’s public safety minister, was heard in September last year criticizing the program in a leaked audio recording, in which he said the police do not have enough resources to enforce the buyback.Several police forces and the national postal service have refused to participate in collecting firearms under the buyback, citing either safety concerns or staffing constraints.There are roughly 1.3 million registered firearms in Canada, according to federal police data.Tumbler Ridge is a small, remote town surrounded by wilderness.ImageA screenshot from a video showing the school building where a shooting took place in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, on Tuesday.Credit...Trent Ernst/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesTumbler Ridge, the remote British Columbia town where a shooter killed 9 people on Tuesday at a school and residence before dying of a self-inflicted injury, has a population of about 2,400 people and lies near the border with Alberta.The town sits at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, in the province’s northeast, and is surrounded by expansive mountain ranges and a geological park recognized by UNESCO, the United Nations cultural agency. It is so remote that cellphone service cuts out about 30 seconds into a car ride out of town, said Danielle Roscher, the owner of a local outdoor tour company.Against that backdrop, the attacks that unfolded on Tuesday are even more unsettling, she said. “It just doesn’t even seem real.”Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, where the shooting occurred, has 160 to 175 students, according to the websites for the school district and provincial government. Because of the school’s small size, there is a “tremendous sense of community” between staff and students, the district’s website said.In addition to the secondary school, the town has just one elementary school and one college, according to the town’s official website.Tumbler Ridge was once a mining hub, home to two major mines that shut down in 2000 and 2003. Later, officials began a marketing campaign encouraging people to relocate to Tumbler Ridge for its affordable housing and proximity to nature. Now, the town is known for its outdoor tourism.Most of the province of British Columbia is policed by federal officers because rural towns like Tumbler Ridge are not populous enough to have their own municipal police forces.