The person accused of fatally shooting eight people and injuring two dozen more in the tiny Canadian town of Tumbler Ridge was identified by police Wednesday as 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar.
Van Rootselaar was born a male but had been transitioning to female for the past six years, said Dwayne McDonald, Deputy Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The teenage suspect fatally shot a 39-year-old woman believed to be their mother along with their 11-year-old stepbrother Tuesday at their home in Tumbler Ridge, McDonald said.
Then Van Rootselaar barged into Tumbler Ridge Secondary School where the suspect killed six other people before committing suicide, said McDonald.
Five of the victims at the school were children: three 12-year-old girls; two boys, one age 12 and the other 13.
"They were quite young," said McDonald.
The other victim was a 39-year-old female teacher, said McDonald, who did not give their names.
Police initially reported that the shooter had killed seven people at the school. But a wounded woman female who authorities said had died enroute to a hospital survived and was in critical but stable condition.
Nevertheless, it was one of the country's deadliest mass shootings ever.
McDonald did not divulge a motive for the shooting. But police had responded to Van Rootselaar’s home several times in recent years for mental health-related calls, he said.
Also, McDonald said, during those calls firearms were seized from the home. But the lawful owner of the firearms, whom he did not identify, successfully petitioned to have the weapons returned.
It wasn't immediately clear if any of those firearms were used in Tuesday's mass shooting.
McDonald said Van Rootselaar was familiar with the layout of the school because they had been a student there. They dropped out about four years ago.
Tumbler Ridge, a town of some 2,400 people in a remote corner of British Columbia, remained in shock.
“I will know every victim,” Tumbler Ridge Mayor Darryl Krakowka told the CBC on Tuesday, after emerging from the town hall where he and other workers had taken shelter during the shooting.
"I’ve been here 19 years, and we’re a small community," he said. "I don’t call them residents. I call them family.”
Police received reports of an active shooter around 1:20 p.m. Tuesday and the town immediately went into lockdown.
While police searched the campus, students were marched out of the building with their hands up and searched by officers before they were reunited with their families.
McDonald said they weren't aware of the fatalities at Van Rootselaar house until around 2:45 p.m. when a "young female relative" found the bodies and rushed over to the home of a neighbor and called the police.
British Columbia Premier David Eby said police were at the school following the report of gunfire within two minutes.
"That speed and professionalism saved lives today," he said at an evening news conference.
An estimated 25 other people at the location suffered non-life-threatening injuries, police said. The campus, also described as a high school, was evacuated.
Police went to a residence believed to be connected to the attack and found two people dead inside, Floyd said.
It was too early to give an accounting of how many victims are children, he said, and a possible motive has not been determined.
"The scene was very dramatic, and there are multiple victims that are still being cared for," Floyd said.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement that his government was working to ensure "the community is fully supported as best we can." He called the violence "horrific" and offered condolences to families who lost loved ones in the attack.
"I join Canadians in grieving with those whose lives have been changed irreversibly today," he said.
Later, Carney ordered the Canadian flags be flown at half-mast on all government buildings for seven days.
In a statement on X, Conservative Party of Canada Leader Pierre Poilievre called Tuesday's attack "a senseless act of violence."
King Charles III, who is Canada’s official head of state, also expressed condolences on X. He said he and his wife Queen Camilla were “profoundly shocked and saddened.”
British Columbia legislator Larry Neufeld described Tumbler Ridge as "a small, close-knit town."
"The impact of an event like this is felt by everyone," he said in a statement.
Eby said the day's events won't fade from memory quickly. "This is something that will reverberate for years to come," he said at Tuesday night's news conference.
Hockey legend and four-time Olympic gold medalist Hayley Wickenheiser said Tumbler Ridge co-hosted boot camp for a group of Team Canada's Olympic athletes in 2010.
"It's a beautiful quaint town," she said on X. "My heart hurts for the families of those lost and this community which always be forever special to me."
Meanwhile, the Toronto Blue Jays released a statement with "condolences to the families, friends, and the entire Tumbler Ridge community."
"We stand with you in support during this time of unbearable grief and mourning," it said.
Public Safety Minister Nina Krieger said at the news conference that trauma-informed counselors were being dispatched to the region to help people cope with the day's attack, which she characterized as one of the deadliest in British Columbia history.
The municipality's public school district said that instruction at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and Tumbler Ridge Elementary School was canceled through the end of the week and that mental support for students would be made available.
Tumbler Ridge was developed in 1981 to support coal miners and the local coal industry, according to the website Visit Tumbler Ridge.
