Canadian authorities have identified the shooter who killed eight people at a British Columbia high school as Jesse Van Rootselaar, an 18-year-old woman with a long history of mental health problems that brought police to her home repeatedly over the years.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald told reporters Wednesday that Van Rootselaar killed her 39-year-old mother and 11-year-old stepbrother at their home before heading to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, where she had attended until dropping out four years ago.

Police found Van Rootselaar dead inside the school from what looked like a self-inflicted gunshot wound after Tuesday’s attack in the remote mountain town of 2,400 people, about 1,000 kilometres northeast of Vancouver.

“Police had attended that residence on multiple occasions over the past several years, dealing with concerns of mental health with respect to our suspect,” McDonald said.

Naija News gathered that police seized firearms from the family residence about two years ago, but later returned them after the owner successfully appealed the decision. Van Rootselaar previously held a firearms license, but it expired in 2024.

McDonald said Van Rootselaar was born male but started identifying as female about six years ago. He explained that police were using the publicly disclosed identity she had chosen on social media. No evidence suggests anyone bullied her at school over her transition.

What Happened At The School

The school victims included a 39-year-old teacher and five students: three 12-year-old girls, one 12-year-old boy, and one 13-year-old boy. Officers found one victim in a stairwell and found the others in the library.

More than 25 people suffered injuries, and two badly hurt victims, ages 12 and 19, remain in the hospital. Officers reached the school two minutes after receiving the first emergency call and walked straight into active gunfire, with someone firing shots at them, before they found Van Rootselaar’s body.

“We do believe the suspect acted alone. It would be too early to speculate on motive,” McDonald told reporters, adding that investigators found no information suggesting anyone had been specifically targeted. Police recovered a long gun and a modified handgun at the scene.

How Police Found Out About The Home Killings

A young girl at Van Rootselaar’s home discovered the bodies and ran to a neighbour, who called the police. That call did not come in until 1:47 p.m. Pacific time, about 17 minutes after officers first received reports of an active shooter at the school.

Prime Minister Struggles To Hold It Together

Prime Minister Mark Carney could barely keep his composure on Wednesday as he spoke about the tragedy that had shaken Canada.

“We will get through this. We will learn from this,” Carney told reporters, looking close to tears.

Carney cancelled a trip to Europe and ordered government flags lowered to half-mast for seven days. Later, lawmakers in the House of Commons stood silent for a moment.

“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. Tumbler Ridge represents the very best of Canada,” Carney said.

King Charles sent his condolences, saying he felt “profoundly shocked and saddened.”

Families Start Naming Their Children

Abel Mwansa wrote on Facebook that his 12-year-old son, Abel, died in the shooting. The father remembered how his son once cried when he suggested homeschooling because the boy loved school so much.

Shanon Dycke said her 12-year-old niece, Kylie May Smith, was among the dead.

“Pray for the other families who have lost their child, or are waiting to hear news. Just pray for Tumbler Ridge,” she wrote.

Small Town Where Everyone Knows Everyone

The attack tore through a tight community where people do not lock their doors.

“Everybody knows everybody. People don’t lock their homes. They don’t lock their cars. You can just go to your neighbour’s house, just walk right in,” resident Jordon Kosik said.

Shelley Quist said her neighbour lost her 12-year-old son. “We heard his mom. She was in the street crying. She wanted her son’s body.”

Her own 17-year-old son, Darian, spent over two hours stuck inside the school. He had been in the library just 15 minutes before the shooting started.

“The grade sevens and eights, I think, were upstairs in the library, and that’s where the shooter went,” Shelley Quist said.

Darian said he knew things had turned serious when the principal ran down the halls yelling at everyone to close their doors. Other students texted him photos of blood while he stayed barricaded in a classroom.

“We used the desk to block the doors,” he said.

Mayor Darryl Krakowka called it “devastating” for a town he describes as one big family.

“I broke down. I have lived here for 18 years. I probably know every one of the victims.”

The shooting ranks among Canada’s deadliest. A gunman killed 22 people in a 13-hour rampage through Nova Scotia in April 2020. Another shooter murdered 14 female students at Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique in December 1989.

School shootings happen rarely in Canada, which maintains tougher gun laws than the United States.