TUMBLER RIDGE — Mounties in the small community of Tumbler Ridge, B.C., describe arriving to a chaotic scene at the local high school.
Fire alarms were going off and someone shouted out a window to officers: “the suspect is upstairs.”
“They entered the school, immediately went to the stairwell, proceeded to go up the stairwell, and were met with gunfire inside the school,” RCMP Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald told reporters outside the community’s town hall Friday.
In just seconds, there was more gunfire, not directed at any person but at herself, McDonald said of the killer.
“I can say with confidence that from the moment the suspect encountered police, there were no further injuries to any other students in the school.”
But by that time on Tuesday afternoon, six people — five children aged 12 and 13 and an education assistant — were dead. Police have said 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar earlier killed her mother and 11-year-old brother at the family’s home.
McDonald said investigators don’t know where the primary gun used in the shooting at the school came from.
Four guns were seized in total, he said, two from the family home and two from the school.
McDonald said investigators believe Van Rootselaar was not targeting specific people.
“This suspect was, for lack of a better term, hunting. They were prepared and engaging anybody and everybody they could come in contact with.”
The RCMP news conference came just minutes before Prime Minister Mark Carney and other house leaders attended a memorial site in the community.
Carney, his wife Diana Fox Carney, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, NDP interim leader Don Davies and Green Party Leader Elizabeth May all placed flowers at the site.
They then stood silently, shoulder to shoulder, looking at the memorial where cards, flowers, candles and stuffed animals have been piling up since Tuesday.
Police said forensic work is underway at Tumbler Ridge Secondary school and would continue through the weekend. Work at the home could be finished by Saturday.
Autopsies on the eight victims and the shooter are expected to be completed by the end of the weekend.
McDonald said two children seriously injured at the school remain in hospital.
Police said officers have so far interviewed more than 80 students, educators and first responders.
This report by The Canadian Press was published Feb. 13, 2026.
Jack Farrell, The Canadian Press
