(UPDATE) 18-year-old confirmed as Tumbler Ridge school shooter

Update, February 11th, 4:20 p.m.: This story was updated to clarify the ages of the victims.

TUMBLER RIDGE, B.C. — The identity of the Tumbler Ridge Secondary School shooter has been confirmed. 

BC RCMP deputy commissioner, Dwayne McDonald, named 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, a resident of Tumbler Ridge, as the shooter in a press conference on February 11th.  

This comes after Tumbler Ridge RCMP responded to a call of an ‘active shooter’ at the Tumbler Ridge Secondary School on the afternoon of February 10th. 

McDonald said: “Members from the local detachment [arrived] within two minutes of the initial call.

“On arrival, there was active gunfire, and as officers approached the school, rounds were fired in their direction.”

Responding officers located Rootselaar, deceased with ‘self-inflicted’ wounds and two firearms – a long gun and a modified handgun with a licence that expired in 2024. Investigators are yet to determine the origin and role the two firearms play in the shooting. 

The deceased victims from the school include a 39-year-old female teacher, three 12-year-old girls and two boys between the ages of 12 and 13. 

Two additional victims, a 39-year-old woman and an 11-year-old boy, were found dead in a local residence nearby – they are believed to be the Rootselaar’s first victims. 

He later confirmed the woman was the suspect’s mother and the boy as his stepbrother. Rootselaar was not related to any of the victims in the school.

A neighbour was alerted to the two deaths in the residence by a young child who is a family member. 

McDonald said: “Nine people are deceased as a result of this incident.” 

Twenty-five victims were triaged at the scene and two were airlifted to the hospital, who are reportedly in a critical but stable condition. 

He said victims were located in the school stairwell and library. 

McDonald said: “Once it was determined to be safe, officers evacuated 100 students and faculty, while police continued to assess whether any ongoing threats remained.” 

Rootselaar was known to police with regards to the Mental Health Act. 

“We have a history of police attendance [at the] family residence and some of those calls were related to mental health issues,” he shared.

Additionally, he said officers had seized firearms under the Criminal Code from the residence. 

He added: “At a later point in time, the lawful owner of the firearms petitioned to be returned and they were.” 

Responding to rumours, McDonald confirmed Jesse is biologically male and “approximately six years ago began to transition to female and identified as female both socially and publicly.” 

McDonald said the RCMP do not have an idea about a motive for the shooting.

“Recognizing we’re still less than 24 hours into this incident, it is something that we are passionately pursuing but it would be too early to speculate at this time.”

The RCMP said it is currently working on notifying victim families. 

“For family members, extended family members, friends of the family, this is traumatic and so we will deal and work with the families and cooperate with them in terms of the release of the identities of the victims and photographs. 

“We need to approach this with trauma-informed practice. We don’t want to create additional trauma for families that are dealing with the worst circumstances of their lives.”