Canadian police have identified the suspect in a school massacre in remote British Columbia as an 18-year-old woman with a history of mental health issues.
Six people, including a teacher and five students, were killed in Tuesday’s attack in the town of Tumbler Ridge in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The victim’s mother and step-brother were found dead at the family home, police said. The body of the shooter was also found with a self-inflicted wound.
The incident was one of the worst mass casualty incidents in Canada’s recent history.
“It’s a very sad incident where nine people lost their lives senselessly,” Royal Canadian Mounted Police Deputy Commissioner Dwayne MacDonald said at a briefing Wednesday, in which he revised the death toll to nine from the 10 originally reported.
In a heartbreaking update on a tragedy that shook the nation, MacDonald said one of the victims, who is believed to have succumbed to her injuries, survived but was in critical condition.
According to police, the shooter, Jesse Van Ruetselaar, arrived at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School on Tuesday afternoon with a long gun and a modified handgun. The shooter opened fire on staff and students, killing one teacher and five students aged 12 to 13.
Within two minutes of the shooting, the police reached the spot and opened fire. When they entered the school, they found the victims in the stair well and in the classroom. The body of the shooter was also found.
Police later visited the family home and found Van Rutzelaar’s mother, 39, and 11-year-old half-brother dead from gunshot wounds.
MacDonald said police have responded to Van Rutzelaar’s home for mental health-related calls over the past few years, with some weapons-related calls. He said that at least once weapons were seized from the house and the legal owner of the weapons filed a petition to return them.
Amid questions about how Van Ruetselaar was described in the alerts, McDonald said police “identified the suspect they chose to identify” in public and on social media.
“I can say that Jesse was born a biological male who, about six years ago, began to transition into a woman and socially and publicly identified as a woman,” he said.
MacDonald cautioned that the investigation is still in its early stages and that police cannot yet comment on a possible motive.
Prime Minister, Mark Carneysaid: “What happened shocked our nation and left us all in mourning.
“These children and their teachers bore witness to unspeakable brutality. I want everyone to know this: our entire country stands with you on behalf of all Canadians,” he said in an emotional speech after a minute’s silence in Parliament.
Speaking to lawmakers in the House of Commons after a moment of silence, Carney said:
“Tumbler Ridge … is one of the youngest towns in the Great Province of British Columbia. It was abandoned in the 1980s, built on the promise of a resource economy and the determination of its residents. It’s a town of miners, teachers, construction workers, families, people who have built their lives there, people who have always been there.
Carney, who had already suspended plans to travel to Germany for the high-level Munich security conference, said he had ordered flags on all government buildings to be flown at half-mast for the next seven days.
“We’ll get through this. We’ll learn from this,” he told reporters earlier in the day, at one point looking close to tears.
“But right now, it’s time for Canadians to come together, to support each other, to mourn together and to grow together, always in these circumstances, in these dire circumstances.”
The attack sent shockwaves through Canada, where mass shootings are relatively rare, especially compared to the US. Although the country has relatively high levels of gun ownership, it imposes much stricter laws than its southern neighbor. Ban on assault-style firearms And A moratorium on the sale of handguns.
Federal Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangari is also being sent to the small community of Tumbler Ridge, an isolated town of fewer than 2,500 residents more than 1,000 km (600 miles) northeast of Vancouver by road, Carney said.
At least two people were hospitalized with serious or life-threatening injuries Aru and 25 others are being treated for non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
The town’s mayor, Darryl Krakowka, said the small community is like a “big family.”
“I was broke,” Krakowka said. “I’ve lived here for 18 years. I probably know every single one of the victims.”
British Columbia’s public safety minister, Nina Krieger, said “speed and professionalism” saved lives and that a small detachment from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police “responded within two minutes”.
A 12-year-old girl is said to be “fighting for her life” in a Vancouver hospital after she was shot in the head and neck, according to a widely shared Facebook post written by the girl’s mother, Sia Edmonds, according to local media.
“She was lucky, I think. My condolences to the other families at this sad time,” the post read. “It doesn’t even seem real.”
The Tumbler Ridge district released a statement Tuesday afternoon, calling the shooting a “deeply distressing” incident. “We recognize that many residents are shocked, panicked and overwhelmed,” the district said. “In the coming days, we know this will be difficult for many to process. Please check in with each other, lean on the support available, and know that Tumbler Ridge is a strong and caring community.”
Tumbler Ridge Secondary School has 160 students in grades seven through 12, ages 12 to 18, according to its website. School officials said the school will remain closed for the rest of the week and counseling will be available to those who need it.
“There are no words to ease the fear and pain that incidents like this cause in the school community,” the Tumbler Ridge Parent Advisory Council said in a statement. “We want families to know that the safety and well-being of students and staff is of the utmost importance, and we are grateful to the first responders and emergency personnel who acted quickly and professionally.”
It was the second deadliest school shooting in Canadian history. In 1989, a gunman killed 14 students at L’Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal in an attack targeting women. In 2016, five people were killed in a mass shooting in La Loche, Saskatchewan.
After The worst mass shooting in the country22 deaths in Nova Scotia in 2020, Canada bans nearly 1,500 models of assault weapons.
British Columbia Prime Minister David Eby described Tuesday’s attack as an “unimaginable tragedy.”
As a father of three, Eby said news of the shooting “makes you want to hug your kids a little bit tighter.”
“Wrap these families with love. Not just tonight but into tomorrow and into the future. It will reverberate for years to come,” he said.
