Tumbler Ridge, BC: 1)How to talk to your kids and teens about the Tumbler Ridge mass shootings; 2)RCMP name victims of Tumbler Ridge shootings to ‘honour the lives lost; 3)Tumbler Ridge ‘one big family,’ mayor tells vigil as community reels from shootings; 4)B.C. Premier, minister credit tiny RCMP detachment for saving lives in Tumbler Ridge; 5)’Nomadic lifestyle’ of Tumbler Ridge shooter, who created shopping mall massacre game; 6)(Updated) Police identify B.C. shooting suspect, say five students and teacher dead; 7)’Multiple victims’ in school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., police say
1)How to talk to your kids and teens about the Tumbler Ridge mass shootings
Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press
By Nicole Ireland, February 13, 2026
As news and social media coverage of Tuesday’s mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., continues to blanket the country, parents should be proactive about talking with their kids about the tragedy, psychologists say.
The fact that it happened at a school hits especially close to home, said Dr. Jo Ann Unger, a clinical psychologist in Winnipeg.
“Whenever we can see ourselves or can relate to something very difficult or tragic that’s happened, it naturally creates a larger response,” she said.
“Children seeing that other children have been killed, have died, that can certainly cause us feelings of empathy and sadness and grief,” Unger said.
“Some kids, when they have that tendency towards some anxiety and fear, may have some worries about their own safety.”
Here are some tips from Canadian psychologists about how to talk to help your kids and teens cope with the tragedy.
FACE YOUR OWN FEELINGS
Dr. Tina Montreuil said parents need to come to terms with their own feelings about the tragedy first.
“I think it’s really important right now in the next hours and days that we don’t avoid it and that we process these events,” said Montreuil, an associate professor of educational and counselling psychology at McGill University.
”I think the worst thing that we could do as parents is sort of transfer our own lack of processing of the event and the emotions that it generates in us — fear, uncertainty, insecurity,” she said.
“We want to address this before we speak to our children so that we don’t make them feel unsafe.”
Unger suggests parents talk about their feelings and worries with their partner, adult family members or friends so that when they talk to their kids, they can “do so in a really calm and regulated way.”
LISTEN AND OFFER PERSPECTIVE
Listening and validating kids’ thoughts and feelings is the first step, said Unger.
Doing a “neutral check-in” is helpful to avoid making assumptions about what they’re thinking and feeling so you can hear what’s truly going on with them, she said.
Montreuil said starting by asking kids what they know about the shooting provides an opportunity to correct any misinformation.
If your child or teen is feeling frightened about going to school, it’s important to acknowledge that fear and then ”very gently and kindly provide as much factual information that we can about what things are in place that do keep them safe,” said Unger.
It’s important to be truthful, she said.
“We can’t say to them, ‘Well, this will never happen to you,’ and then they can answer back, ‘Well, it happened to somebody,'” Unger said.
But at the same time, parents can put the fear in perspective by noting how rare school shootings are in Canada, she said.
Dr. Margaret McKinnon, a mental health and trauma researcher at McMaster University, said parents can reinforce that schools are generally safe places.
McKinnon said it’s important for parents to “use plain language and concrete terms” in these conversations.
WATCH FOR SIGNS OF MENTAL STRESS
Younger children may not express all of their feelings verbally, McKinnon said, but their behaviour can be telling.
“It won’t necessarily be speaking, but things like disrupted play, maybe (it’s) more fighting or arguments,” she said.
“So sometimes it’s what children say, but it’s also what they do as well when they’re feeling upset or worried.”
Unger said other behaviour changes that can signal mental distress in kids and teens include difficulty sleeping, not being able to concentrate, changes in eating, isolating themselves or not doing the activities they usually enjoy.
“Sometimes, it can even come out as irritability, as opposed to what we would be able to easily name as fear or anxiety,” Unger said.
”If we see some of these signs, then we might be a little bit more assertive in our check-in,” she said.
Parents can say they’ve noticed the change in behaviour and ask if something is troubling them and offer to listen and help.
If your child or teen continues to struggle, feel deep sadness or fear, or can’t stop thinking about the shooting after a couple of weeks, parents may want to seek additional support through school, a primary-care provider or mental health professional, Unger said.
MAINTAIN ROUTINES
”Routine is really stabilizing and combats that sense of stress or that sense of unknown or that sense of fear,” said Unger.
“We’re still going to go to school, we’re still going to get up, we’re still going to have meals at the same time, we’re still going to keep doing activities, even though this terrible thing has happened,” she said.
“(That) can really help us manage that stress level.”
TAKE ACTION
Taking concrete action can combat the feeling of helplessness after a traumatic event, psychologists say.
“Research shows that when we can take some action and when we can show some kindness and compassion in the world, it actually helps our mental health as well as the people we’re supporting,” Unger said.
Those acts of kindness could be specifically directed to the community of Tumbler Ridge, or they could benefit your own community in their honour.
Kids could write cards and letters to people in Tumbler Ridge, or organize fundraising events for them, Unger said.
They could also fundraise for organizations closer to home that help families deal with grief or support mental health.
Montreuil said getting youth to identify actions they can take can be “very valuable.”
”The best way to overcome the lack of safety, feeling insecure and feeling like a victim ourselves, even though this is kind of distant from us, is to get youth to do something,” she said.
That could be anything from holding a town hall in school to talk about feelings arising from the tragedy to doing an art project to honour the community of Tumbler Ridge and posting it on social media, Montreuil said.
2)RCMP name victims of Tumbler Ridge shootings to ‘honour the lives lost’
Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press
By Canadian Press Staff, February 12, 2026
The names and photos of children and adults shot to death in a small B.C. town were released 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.
Shannda Aviugana-Durand, 39, an education assistant at the school, was also killed by Van Rootselaar, who took her own life after police moved in to stop the carnage.
Police say 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 shooting victims were airlifted out from the school in serious condition.
The mother of a 12-year-old Maya Gebala said Thursday there is 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, Maya Gebala. “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 is 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 Paige that read, “I want to tell everyone that I am OK and I am recovering.”
Glimpses of Van Rootselaar’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.
Jacob’s Facebook page says she hailed from the small town of Lawn on the southern tip of Newfoundland and Labrador, separated from Van Rootselaar’s father in 2015, and 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., citing in his decision that they had led an “almost nomadic life.”
Tumbler Ridge, and Canada, have seen expressions of support arrive from leaders around the world, from as far away as war-torn Ukraine and Australia.
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced he will head to Tumbler Ridge to attend a vigil on Friday. His office says Carney was invited by town Mayor Darryl Krakowka and that he has invited all other federal party leaders to join him.
On Thursday, an official day of mourning in B.C., residents walked through chill winds to continue to lay flowers at a makeshift memorial in the town centre.
Tracy Krauss, a local pastor, says she knows the families — all the families — involved and says 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 the Jesse Van Rootselaar’s grandma.
“It’s not like this big bad devil came to town,” Krauss said in an interview.
The shooter’s family are part of the community.
“There are other siblings,” she said. “There are grandparents, and aunties and uncles. They’re hurting.
“They are as devasted as anyone because they lost three family members, but they’re also being vilified, you know.”
Krauss says she was at the community centre Tuesday as parents awaited on that awful afternoon to be reunited with their children.
One by one the kids arrived, the families went home, leaving only a tiny knot of anxious people waiting for children they finally learned were not coming. Eventually, police arrived, took the parents aside one by one and delivered the news. The 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.”
Across multiple internet platform, friends and families posted pictures and memories and 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 mom, Desirae Pisarski, posted on Facebook.
A GoFundMe organizer for Ticaria Lampert says she leaves behind seven siblings and her mother Sarah.
The father of Abel Mwansa Jr. wrote that he’ll never forget his son’s radiant smile, but said, “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.
On Thursday, investigators wearing white coveralls, worn to prevent an officer from contaminating a crime scene, were outside the home where Jennifer and Emmett Jacobs died.
Police have said that they paid multiple visits to Van Rootselaar’s home on mental health concerns and at one time to seize weapons, which were later returned.
A long gun and a modified handgun were located in the school after the shooting and Mounties say they are working to determined where they 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.
A frind of Jennifer Jacobs’ friend, in a social media post, called her a caring parent.
“I know you did your very best despite of everything,” wrote Rhen-Rhen Reyes Ceredon.
3)Tumbler Ridge ‘one big family,’ mayor tells vigil as community reels from shootings
Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press
By Brenna Owen, February 12, 2026
A memorial of flowers, lights and stuffed animals grows in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., as the community grapples with the fallout of a mass shooting that killed nine people, mostly children, along with the 18-year-old shooter who police say took her own life.
Young children, teenagers, parents and grandparents huddled against the cold and the grief at a vigil the day after Tuesday’s killing spree, with the mayor telling mourners, “It’s OK to cry.”
District of Tumbler Ridge Mayor Darryl Krakowka says crying is not a sign of weakness, but one of strength, and the community needs to “stay strong.”
He says Tumbler Ridge is “one big family,” encouraging people to reach out and support each other, especially the families of those who died in the attack.
Krakowka says the community must support victims’ families “forever,” not only in the days and weeks to come.
The violence had started at a family home, where police say the shooter killed her mother and 11-year-old stepbrother before heading to the local secondary school and opening fire, apparently at random, killing three 12-year-old girls, two boys, aged 12 and 13, and an educator, a woman who was 39.
“We need to be strong for every one of us,” Krakowka told the vigil.
“That’s how we’re going to get through this.”
Police have identified the shooter as Jesse Van Rootselaar, saying she had been assigned male at birth but started transitioning six years ago, dropped out of school about two years later and had a history of mental health concerns.
B.C. Premier David Eby was among the mourners at the vigil, before telling a news conference that officials from different levels of government and political parties were “unified” in their commitment to the community of about 2,700 residents.
“For the parents, for the families, for the people of Tumbler Ridge, all of us here will make sure that the supports are here — knowing that they will never be adequate for what you are going through.”
Eby was joined by Gary Anandasangaree, the federal public safety minister, who said Ottawa would support grieving families and the community at every step.
“As families are unable to put their kids to sleep tonight, there’s no words that I can say that’ll bring their children back — but what we can say, is that as a country, we are with you,” he said.
“We’re working together like never before.”
4)B.C. Premier, minister credit tiny RCMP detachment for saving lives in Tumbler Ridge
Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press
By Wolfgang Depner, February 11, 2026
The five members of the tiny RCMP detachment in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., are being credited with saving lives during a shooting attack that left 10 dead, including the suspect.
British Columbia Premier David Eby says RCMP Supt. Ken Floyd told him that officers from the detachment responded to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School within two minutes.
The premier, who was speaking at a news conference in Vancouver Tuesday evening, says that the quick arrival of officers at the school prevented what was already “quite a devastating tragedy” from “being significantly worse.”
The premier says he’s “very grateful that officers responded so quickly and so fearlessly.”
Public Safety Minister Nina Krieger says RCMP are “surging” resources into the community of 2,700 in northeastern B.C. and that their government will continue to work with police to make sure they have all the necessary resources to carry out the investigation.
RCMP issued its active shooter alert at 1:20 p.m. Pacific time on Tuesday and cancelled at 5:45 that afternoon.
Statistics from the provincial government show that Tumbler Ridge’s RCMP detachment has remained at an authorized strength of five members since 2014 and that officers responded to 114 Criminal Code offences in 2024 for a crime rate of 44 cases per 1,000 residents.
5)’Nomadic lifestyle’ of Tumbler Ridge shooter, who created shopping mall massacre game
Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press
By Canadian Press Staff, February 12, 2026
‘Nomadic lifestyle’ of Tumbler Ridge shooter, who created shopping mall massacre game
A picture of the troubled life of Tumbler Ridge, B.C., shooter Jesse Van Rootselaar is emerging, with a court ruling depicting her family’s “nomadic lifestyle” and a gaming company removing her account, which was used to create a shopping mall massacre simulation.
Online platform Roblox said in a statement Thursday that it had removed the account “connected to this horrifying incident as well as any content associated with the suspect.”
Videos of the “gaming experience” that have been shared on social media show a character running around a mall, picking up guns and shooting other characters.
Roblox says it’s committed to “fully supporting law enforcement in their investigation.”
Police have said they made multiple visits for mental health concerns to the split-level home in Tumbler Ridge that Van Rootselaar shared with her mother, Jennifer Jacobs, and 11-year-old stepbrother, Emmett Jacobs.
RCMP say Van Rootselaar, 18, killed them both in the family home before continuing her killing spree at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, where she shot dead a teacher’s aide and five children.
The shooter had been apprehended multiple times under B.C.’s Mental Health Act, and had dropped out of school four years ago, police say.
A 2015 B.C. Supreme Court decision in a dispute between the shooter’s parents describes Jennifer Jacobs, moving with her children between Newfoundland and Labrador, Grand Cache in Alberta and Powell River, B.C., in the previous five years.
Jacobs, also known as Jennifer Strang, was found to have engaged in “reprehensible conduct” by failing to give her children’s father enough notice that she was moving back to Newfoundland in August 2015.
She was ordered to return their children to B.C.
Police investigators in white protective suits were working Thursday at the Tumbler Ridge home where the killings began.
Outside the home, there were signs of the lives erased, blue bins and a pickup truck in the driveway.
In the snowy front yard lay a bicycle, tangled in yellow police tape.
In the court ruling, Justice Anthony Saunders blames Jennifer Jacobs’ “nomadic lifestyle” for Justin Jan Vanrootselaar not having vigorously pursued his parental rights. The court spells the father’s surname without the space.
“Ms. Strang acknowledges in her affidavit that there have been at least months at a time when Mr. Vanrootselaar has had no idea where the children have been,” Saunders notes.
Jacobs is described in the court documents as being pregnant with a child due in January 2016. Her existing children, Saunders’ ruling says, had had “no personal contact” with their father at the time of the ruling, although they were beginning to have phone contact.
Jennifer Jacobs’ Facebook account lists her hometown as Lawn, N.L.
In that small community of about 600 near the coast of the French islands of St. Pierre-Miquelon and about a 400-kilometre drive west of St. John’s, she is remembered as an occasional visitor.
Resident Doris Strang is unrelated but says Jacobs used to visit from B.C. when her grandmother was still alive, never staying for very long.
“It’s a tragedy,” Strang said in an interview Thursday. “It’s affected a lot of people in this little town … (people) are just outraged about it, that this could happen, and it could have been worse.”
According to a 2018 post on her social media, Jacobs had five children. She was featured in a 2023 article from the northeast B.C. news site Energeticcity.ca, urging parents to push for better health care.
The article was published after a nurse said Jacobs’ then-seven-year-old son had a stomach bug that turned out to be appendicitis.
Jacobs’ Facebook profile says she worked for Tumbler Ridge coal mining company Conuma Resources. Her friend list includes numerous residents of both Lawn and Tumbler Ridge.
They include Cia Edmonds, the mother of 12-year-old Maya Gebala who was shot by Van Rootselaar and is gravely injured in BC Children’s Hospital.
Police have said Van Rootselaar chose her victims at the school at random.
— Jack Farrell in Edmonton, Brenna Owen in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., and Devin Stevens in Halifax
6)(Updated) Police identify B.C. shooting suspect, say five students and teacher dead
Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press
By Canadian Press Staff, Feb. 11, 2026.
Investigation continues into shootings that left 10 dead at B.C. school and home
The person behind one of British Columbia’s worst mass killings has been identified as an 18-year-old female school dropout who killed family members at home, then gunned down random students at a school before firing on police and killing herself as officers closed in.
RCMP Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald identified the shooter as Jesse Van Rootselaar, saying she was born male but started transitioning six years ago and had quit school four years earlier.
“We do believe the suspect acted alone,” McDonald told a news conference in Surrey, B.C., Wednesday, a day after the shootings in the remote community of Tumbler Ridge, in northeastern B.C.
“This is a deeply distressing incident where nine individuals have senselessly lost their lives.”
McDonald said Van Rootselaar killed her mother and stepbrother Tuesday before shooting to death an adult female educator and five students aged as young as 12 at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School.
Three of the deceased students were girls and two were boys.
“There was one victim that was located deceased … in the stairwell of the school, and the others were located, I believe, in the library of the school,” he said.
When police arrived they were met with gunfire, but when they found Van Rootselaar in the school, she was dead.
He said the investigation continues but it doesn’t appear that Van Rootselaar knew the victims. Two other victims were airlifted to hospital were in critical but stable condition.
Police had originally listed the death toll at 10, but McDonald updated it to nine, saying one of those thought to have succumbed to their injuries was still alive.
McDonald said two guns were recovered by officers, a “long gun and a modified handgun.”
He said officers were still investigating the weapons. “We want to make sure that the information we do provide is accurate, we want to ensure that we can identify properly the ownership of the firearms, how they were procured, whether they were lawfully owned, unlawfully owned … and whether there could be any other parties to an offence that we are not yet aware of.”
McDonald said Van Rootselaar had previously had a gun license but it expired in 2024 and she no longer had guns registered to her.
He said that firearms had previously been seized by the home under the Criminal Code, but that they were later returned to “the lawful owner” after the owner petitioned for them to be given back. McDonald didn’t specify who the lawful owner was or if the guns had been seized from Van Rootselaar.
He said Van Rootselaar was well known to police. He said she had previously been apprehended under the provincial mental health act and hospitalized “in some circumstances.”
He said the last time police had attended the home was in the spring of last year. McDonald didn’t provide details on what had happened, but said the call was in line with past instances and concerns for Van Rootselaar’s mental health.
7)’Multiple victims’ in school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., police say
Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press
By Canadian Press Staff, February 10, 2026
RCMP say there are “multiple victims” in a shooting at the Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in British Columbia’s Peace region.
RCMP Staff Sgt. Kris Clark confirms in a text message that there are victims in what police have called an “active shooter” situation, however he couldn’t say how many people are involved or the extent of their injuries.
Police said in an earlier statement that the “original suspect” was believed to be dead, but officers were working to determine whether a second suspect is involved.
The emergency alert that went out to the cellphones of local residents on Tuesday afternoon describes a suspect as a “female in a dress with brown hair.”
Police are asking residents in Tumbler Ridge to shelter in place as additional police resources are being deployed to the area from neighbouring detachments.
RCMP say that no one should approach a potential suspect and should call 911.
The District of Tumbler Ridge issued a statement saying its community experienced “a deeply distressing incident” on Tuesday, and as the situation was still unfolding, it was asking residents to rely on official updates from the RCMP and emergency authorities.
It said supports were already in the community or on the way.
“In the days ahead, we know this will be difficult for many to process. Please check in on one another, lean on available supports, and know that Tumbler Ridge is a strong and caring community. We will get through this together,” read the statement.
David Marose, a staff member at the Tumbler Ridge Inn, said he also received the warning about the shooter.
“I am praying for everyone there because it’s horrible.”
The provincial government website lists Tumbler Ridge Secondary School as having 175 students from Grades 7 to 12.
The Peace River South School District said Tuesday that there was a “lockdown and secure and hold” at both the secondary school and the Tumbler Ridge Elementary school.
Larry Neufeld, the member of the legislature for Peace River South, told reporters at the legislature that an “excess” of resources, including RCMP and ambulance support, have been sent to the community.
He said he didn’t want to release any more information over concerns that it might jeopardize the safety of the ongoing operation, and he urged those in the community to stay where they are.
“We do understand that a few folks are out looking for loved ones, and again, please, please go back to your homes and shelter in place and allow the amazing people of the RCMP to make this community, this beautiful community, safe again,” he said.
A statement from B.C.’s Minister of Public Safety Nina Krieger said Tuesday she had spoken to the mayor and Neufeld, and the government was offering the RCMP any additional assistance needed.
“(An) extremely concerning situation unfolding in Tumbler Ridge,” she said.