The residence of a teenager accused of perpetrating a fatal school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., had been involved in police incidents concerning mental health and weapons over the last two years. The shooter, identified as Jesse Van Rootselaar by the RCMP on Wednesday, fatally shot eight individuals, including her mother and half-brother, before ending her own life. The police are probing the events leading up to the tragedy, including the dynamics within the suspect’s family.
Van Rootselaar first shot her mother and half-brother at home before proceeding to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, where she killed six more people, injured over two dozen others, and then took her own life. The police matched Van Rootselaar’s public and social media identification, revealing that the 18-year-old had transitioned from male to female six years ago.
The suspect’s and her mother’s social media profiles attracted global attention, shedding light on their family spread across the country from Newfoundland to B.C.’s Sunshine Coast. Court records from 2015 disclosed that Strang, the suspect’s mother, had moved frequently with her children, prompting a legal order to prevent them from leaving British Columbia.
During a family court dispute, Strang sought to relocate her children to Newfoundland for educational purposes while being pregnant and seeking familial support. Over the years, family members’ Facebook accounts portrayed a close-knit family that celebrated Van Rootselaar’s milestones and interests, including her affinity for firearms as hinted in a now-deleted post from Strang’s account. Law enforcement recovered two unregistered firearms, a long gun, and a modified handgun, at the school where the shooting occurred.
Van Rootselaar held an expired firearms license, and the RCMP noted a prior seizure of firearms from the family’s residence under the Criminal Code, with some police interactions linked to mental health concerns, including an incident where the suspect was taken for evaluation under the Mental Health Act.