Eighteen-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar shot her mom and younger brother on February 10, 2026, inside their Tumbler Ridge home. After killing her family, Van Rootselaar went to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, where she killed six more people, including five students and a teacher, as well as injuring about two dozen others. The school shooting, one of Canada’s deadliest, has rocked the small, northern British Columbia town. Van Rootselaar shot herself before she could be apprehended by the police, so it may take some time for investigators to figure out a motive and try to make sense of what feels like a senseless killing.
Five students between the ages of 11 and 13 were killed at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported. Abel Mwansa, a 12-year-old boy from Zambia, had moved to Canada with his family in 2023, his father told the outlet. “Everybody loves him and everybody knew him in town,” Abel Mwansa Sr. shared.
In a statement shared by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, 12-year-old Zoey Benoit’s family described her as “so resilient, vibrant, smart, caring and the strongest little girl you could meet. She brought so much laughter and smiles in her presence.”
Kylie Smith was called “the light in our family,” according to a statement from the police. The 12-year-old was the youngest figure skater in Tumbler Ride, shared her biological mother, Desirae Pisarski.
“She was a dork of all dorks. She had a Santa sack of every bad dad joke you could think of,” Ticaria Lampert’s mother, Sarah Lampert, said on February 12. “Our family is shattered and it is going to take immense amounts of time to get through this.”
Not much information has been shared about 13-year-old Ezekiel Schofield or 39-year-old educational assistant Shannda Aviugana-Durand.
The other two victims were the shooter’s mother, Jennifer Strang, identified by police using her legal name, Jennifer Jacobs, and her son, Van Rootselaar’s 11-year-old half-brother, Emmett Jacobs.
“She did everything for her children. She has a beautiful backyard, she has trampolines, she had all sorts of entertainment,” neighbor Angela Eagle said, adding that she was a “very good mom.”
Cia Edmonds, mother of Maya Gebala, a student seriously injured in the shooting, told the CBC that she witnessed the lengths the single mom went through to get help for Van Rootselaar.
Edmonds said of Strang, “[I] really — I truly believe that in her heart — did everything she could to try to help.… I know that she struggled.”
An earlier report that a victim had died on the way to the hospital was corrected by police, the BBC reported.
As of February 11, per RCMP Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald, there was no information that would indicate the kids who died were being targeted. Most of the victims seemed “quite young,” born between 2012 and 2013. When asked where the victims were found, he said one was found in a stairwell. The others were in the school library.
McDonald said the police “don’t have an idea yet” about the motive for the school shooting but are “passionately pursuing” possibilities.
According to McDonald, Van Rootselaar, who was transgender, dropped out of Tumbler Ridge Secondary School four years ago. The deputy commissioner said there is no suggestion that the teen was bullied “because of the transition from male to female.”
Police had visited the home of Van Rootselaar multiple times over the last few years, however. Those visits were due to mental health concerns, and McDonald confirmed that weapons were involved.
