TUMBLER RIDGE — The names and photos of eight children and adults shot to death in a small British Columbia town were released by police Thursday in a sombre visual rollcall of chubby cheeks, shy smiles and braces.
The 2,700 residents of Tumbler Ridge, meanwhile, began coping not only with unimaginable grief but also empathy and rage in a community they now share with the kin of the killer.
Girls Kylie Smith, Zoey Benoit, Ticaria Lampert — all age 12 — and boys Abel Mwansa Jr., also 12, and Ezekiel Schofield, 13, were killed Tuesday afternoon in Tumbler Ridge Secondary School by 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar.
Ticaria Lampert’s mother, Sarah Lampert, told reporters in a trembling voice that her daughter was a “family hero.”
Lampert said she is a single mother in a large family that must now figure out how to live without Ticaria, when nothing and no one can fill that gap.
“She’s been the glue in our family, the bridge between the age gaps. She could mature to roll with her older sisters, or she could come down to be a Tarzan with her wild little siblings,” Lampert said at the local community centre later Thursday.
A GoFundMe for Ticaria said she leaves behind seven siblings.
Lampert said her “Tiki torch” was “whoever and whatever someone needed” and fiercely loved her siblings, grandmother, uncles, “everybody.”
“She was everything, especially to me.”
Shannda Aviugana-Durand, 39, an education assistant at the school, was also killed by Van Rootselaar, who was the ninth to die when she shot herself as police moved in to stop the carnage.
Police have said the shootings were random, with victims found in a stairwell and the library.
Police also confirmed that before heading to the school that day, Van Rootselaar killed her mother 39-year-old Jennifer Jacobs, and her 11-year-old stepbrother Emmett Jacobs, in the family home.
Two more victims from the school were airlifted to hospital in serious condition.
The mother of a 12-year-old Maya Gebala said Thursday there was hope as the girl fights for her life in hospital in Vancouver with bullet wounds in her head and neck.
“She’s moved,” Cia Edmonds said in a social media post about her daughter. “It’s stimulus, a kick, a hand move, but it’s something!
“It’s truly something new in almost 48 hours. Keep up the positive vibes.”
The sister to the other injured student, 19-year-old Paige Hoekstra, said Hoekstra was shot once in the chest and was out of surgery.
“She is officially out of danger and in recovery,” reads the Facebook post from Leann Fletcher. Fletcher also included a message from Hoekstra that read, “I want to tell everyone that I am OK and I am recovering.”
Glimpses of the shooter’s life were also emerging.
Online platform Roblox said in a statement it had removed a game created by Van Rootselaar, which digital news company 404 Media said allowed players to massacre people in a shopping mall.
“We have removed the user account connected to this horrifying incident as well as any content associated with the suspect. We are committed to fully supporting law enforcement in their investigation,” a Roblox spokesperson said.
Jacobs’s Facebook page said she hailed from the small town of Lawn on the southern tip of Newfoundland.
She was estranged from Van Rootselaar’s father, and in 2015 sought to move her children from B.C. back to her home province.
Instead, a judge ruled the children were to be returned to B.C., saying in his decision that they had led an “almost nomadic life.”
The shooter’s father, Justin Jan Vanrootselaar, said in a statement to Global News that as “the biological father of the individual responsible, I carry a sorrow that is difficult to put into words.”
The statement said he was also estranged from his child, who never used the family surname, and that the shootings have “left an ache in the heart of our town that will not soon fade.”
Tumbler Ridge — and Canada — has seen expressions of support from leaders around the world, as far away as war-torn Ukraine and Australia.
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced he would travel to Tumbler Ridge to attend a vigil Friday. His office said Carney was invited by town Mayor Darryl Krakowka and he had invited all other federal party leaders to join him.
On Thursday, an official day of mourning in B.C., residents walked through cold winds as they continued to lay flowers at a makeshift memorial in the town centre.
Tracy Krauss, a local pastor, said she knows the families involved and the pain is made worse in Tumbler Ridge because death was brought on by one of their own. On Wednesday, she said, she brought food to Jesse Van Rootselaar’s grandmother.
“It’s not like this big bad devil came to town,” Krauss said in an interview.
The shooter’s family is part of the community.
“There are other siblings,” she said. “There are grandparents, and aunties and uncles. They’re hurting.
“They are as devastated as anyone because they lost three family members, but they’re also being vilified, you know.”
Krauss said she was present that awful Tuesday afternoon as parents waited to be reunited with their children.
One by one, the kids arrived, the families went home, leaving only a small knot of anxious people waiting for kids they learned were not coming. Eventually, police arrived, took parents aside one by one and delivered the news. Police had a process, and they had to follow it, Krauss said. But that didn’t make it easier.
“That was hard, really hard,” she said. “In many ways, it felt really cruel, to be honest.”
Krauss is the co-pastor of New Life Assembly church in Tumbler Ridge alongside her husband, Gerald Krauss, and she said the couple is close to the family of a 12-year-old boy killed at the school.
His death has “really gutted us,” she said, later wiping away tears after describing him as a “great kid” with a big smile who was a member of the church community.
“His parents were immigrants and they came to Canada and were so thrilled the life that they were building here.”
Krauss said the boy was learning to skate. “He realized he probably wasn’t going to be a good hockey player, but he wanted to be a referee and he would go to all the games and watch.”
Across multiple internet platforms, friends and families posted pictures and memories of the victims along with family fundraising campaigns.
Kylie Smith was described by her parents as a girl who loved anime and art and dreamt of going to school in Toronto.
“She had the biggest heart and was such a gentle, loving, caring girl, who lit up the way everywhere she went. She couldn’t hurt a fly,” Kylie’s mother, Desirae Pisarski, posted on Facebook.
The father of Abel Mwansa Jr. wrote that he’ll never forget his son’s radiant smile. “I was broken when I saw you packed in that black bag, lifeless and zipped up like those we see in movies.”
Ezekiel Schofield was remembered by his grandfather Peter Schofield. “Everything feels so surreal. The tears just keep flowing,” he wrote.
Mounties continue to investigate the shooting spree.
On Thursday, investigators wearing white coveralls, to prevent contaminating the crime scene, were at the home where Jennifer and Emmett Jacobs were found dead.
Police have said officers had previously made multiple visits to the home for mental health concerns and once to seize weapons, which were later returned.
A long gun and a modified handgun were found in the school after the shootings, and Mounties have said they were working to determine where the weapons came from, who owned them and whether they were legal.
Van Rootselaar, they said, was assigned male at birth but began to transition six years ago. Four years ago, she dropped out of school.
Rhen-Rhen Reyes Ceredon, a friend, called Jennifer Jacobs a caring parent.
“I know you did your very best despite of everything,” said a social media post.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 12, 2026.
Brenna Owen, The Canadian Press
