By The Canadian Press
Police began putting tape out near the Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and surrounding buildings in Tumbler Ridge, B.C. on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jesse Boily)
The person behind one of British Columbia’s worst mass killings has been identified as an 18-year-old female school dropout who killed family members at home, then gunned down random students at a school before firing on police and killing herself as officers closed in.
RCMP Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald identified the shooter as Jesse Van Rootselaar, saying she was born male but started transitioning six years ago and had quit school four years earlier.
“We do believe the suspect acted alone,” McDonald told a news conference in Surrey, B.C., Wednesday, a day after the shootings in the remote community of Tumbler Ridge, in northeastern B.C.
“This is a deeply distressing incident where nine individuals have senselessly lost their lives.”
McDonald said Van Rootselaar killed her mother and stepbrother Tuesday before shooting to death an adult female educator and five students aged as young as 12 at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School.
Three of the deceased students were girls and two were boys.
“There was one victim that was located deceased … in the stairwell of the school, and the others were located, I believe, in the library of the school,” he said.
When police arrived they were met with gunfire, but when they found Van Rootselaar in the school, she was dead.
He said the investigation continues but it doesn’t appear that Van Rootselaar knew the victims. Two other victims were airlifted to hospital were in critical but stable condition.
Police had originally listed the death toll at 10, but McDonald updated it to nine, saying one of those thought to have succumbed to their injuries was still alive.
McDonald said two guns were recovered by officers, a “long gun and a modified handgun.”
He said officers were still investigating the weapons. “We want to make sure that the information we do provide is accurate, we want to ensure that we can identify properly the ownership of the firearms, how they were procured, whether they were lawfully owned, unlawfully owned … and whether there could be any other parties to an offence that we are not yet aware of.”
McDonald said Van Rootselaar had previously had a gun license but it expired in 2024 and she no longer had guns registered to her.
He said that firearms had previously been seized by the home under the Criminal Code, but that they were later returned to “the lawful owner” after the owner petitioned for them to be given back. McDonald didn’t specify who the lawful owner was or if the guns had been seized from Van Rootselaar.
He said Van Rootselaar was well known to police. He said she had previously been apprehended under the provincial mental health act and hospitalized “in some circumstances.”
He said the last time police had attended the home was in the spring of last year. McDonald didn’t provide details on what had happened, but said the call was in line with past instances and concerns for Van Rootselaar’s mental health.
