Police identify suspect in Canada school shooting as 18-year-old

Police have identified the suspect in a school shooting in Canada as an 18-year-old who had prior mental health calls to her home and who was found dead following the attack that killed eight people in a remote part of British Columbia.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police deputy commissioner Dwayne McDonald said Jesse Van Rootselaar had a history of mental health contact with police, and that the suspect’s mother and stepbrother were also found dead in a home near the school. The motive remained unclear.

Police initially said nine people were killed on Tuesday in the attack, but Mr McDonald clarified on Wednesday that there were eight fatalities, plus the suspect, who authorities said shot herself.

Mr McDonald said the discrepancy arose from a victim who was airlifted to a medical centre. Authorities mistakenly thought that person had died.

Prime Minister Mark Carney addresses politicians about the tragedy PA Media

More than 25 people were wounded in the attack in the small mountain community of Tumbler Ridge, police said.

The town of 2,700 people in the Canadian Rockies is more than 600 miles north-east of Vancouver, near the provincial border with Alberta.

Police said the victims included a 39-year-old teacher and five students, aged 12 to 13.

Mr McDonald said the suspect’s mother, who was also 39, and an 11-year-old stepbrother, were found at the suspect’s home.

The killings at the home occurred first, he said. A young family member at the home went to a neighbour, who called police.

Canada school shooting

At the school, one victim was found in a stairwell and the rest, Mr McDonald believed, were found in the library. The suspect was not related to any of the victims at the school, he said.

“There is no information at this point that anyone was specifically targeted,” Mr McDonald said.

Police recovered a long gun and a modified handgun. Mr McDonald said officers arrived at the school two minutes after the initial call. When they arrived, shots were fired in their direction.

“Parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers in Tumbler Ridge will wake up without someone they love. The nation mourns with you, and Canada stands by you,” an emotional Prime Minister Mark Carney said as he arrived in Parliament.

The attack was Canada’s deadliest rampage since 2020, when a gunman in Nova Scotia killed 13 people and set fires that left another nine dead.

Mr Carney said flags at government buildings will be flown at half-mast for seven days and added: “We will get through this.”

Shelley Quist said her neighbour across the street lost her 12-year-old.

“We heard his mom. She was in the street crying. She wanted her son’s body,” Ms Quist said.

Ms Quist said her 17-year-old son, Darian, was on lockdown in the school for more than two hours. The provincial government website lists Tumbler Ridge Secondary School as having 175 students.

“The grade sevens and eights, I think, were upstairs in the library, and that’s where the shooter went,” she said. Her son was in the library just 15 minutes prior to the attack.

Ms Quist was working at the hospital down the street when the shooting started.

Students leave Tumbler Ridge school PA Media

“I was about to go run down to the school, but my co-worker held me back. And then I was able to get Darian on the phone to know he was OK,” she said.

School shootings are rare in Canada, which has strict gun-control laws. The government has responded to previous mass shootings with gun-control measures, including a recently broadened ban on all guns it considers assault weapons.

A video showed students walking out with their hands raised as police vehicles surrounded the building and a helicopter circled overhead.

Police found six people dead, Royal Canadian Mounted Police superintendent Ken Floyd said. A seventh person died while being transported to a hospital.

David Eby said police reached the school within two minutes. PA Media

Tumbler Ridge mayor Darryl Krakowka said it was “devastating” to learn how many had died in the community, which he called a “big family.”

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

The school district said the high school and elementary school will be closed for the rest of the week.

Mr Carney’s office said he called off a planned trip to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Munich, Germany. He had been set to announce a long-awaited defence industrial strategy on Wednesday in Halifax before heading to Europe for the Munich Security Conference.

British Columbia premier David Eby said on he had spoken to the prime minister about the “unimaginable tragedy”.

“I know it’s causing us all to hug our kids a little bit tighter tonight,” he said. “I’m asking the people of British Columbia to look after the people of Tumbler Ridge tonight.”