Jamaine Punzalan

Article (news)

Agence France-Presse

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/17708529820891770852979585.jpeg" style="width:960px;display:block;height:auto" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">This photograph provided by local journalist Trent Ernst shows the middle school and high school building where a shooting took place, leaving at least nine people dead in the small town of Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, on February 10, 2026. Trent Ernst via AFP</span></span></span></div><div><br/></div><div><br/></div><div><br/></div><p>Canadian police said Wednesday an 18-year-old carried out a <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2026/2/12/canada-stunned-by-deadliest-school-shooting-in-decades-0121">mass shooting</a> in a remote mining town, killing six people at a local school, after slaying her mother and stepbrother.</p><p>Police commander Dwayne McDonald said authorities still don&#x27;t know the motive in Tuesday&#x27;s mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, but the shooter -- who took her own life -- was known to have mental health issues.</p><p>McDonald identified the shooter as Jesse Van Rootselaar, a transgender woman who was born biologically male and dropped out of the targeted high school four years ago.</p><p>McDonald revised the toll down to eight from nine, due to earlier confusion over the condition of one of the victims.</p><p>Officers who entered the town&#x27;s high school found six people dead -- a 39-year-old woman teacher and five students -- three 12-year-old girls and two boys, aged 13 and 12.</p><p>The shooter, armed with a long-barreled gun and a pistol, was found dead from &quot;a self-inflicted gunshot wound&quot; after the massacre, said McDonald, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police deputy commissioner in British Columbia.</p><p>The shooter&#x27;s other victims were her mother and stepbrother, and she was known to officers who had made multiple visits to their home in response to mental health calls, McDonald said.</p><p>The killings in the family home were discovered after another family member alerted neighbors, he said.</p><p>McDonald said the shooter had previously held a firearms license which had lapsed and that weapons had previously been confiscated from her residence -- but were subsequently returned.</p><p>Flags will be lowered nationwide to half-staff for seven days following the tragedy, among the deadliest shootings in Canada&#x27;s history. Messages of support have flooded in from world leaders.</p><p>Prime Minister Mark Carney said &quot;what happened has left our nation in shock and all of us in mourning.&quot;</p><p>&quot;These children and their teachers bore witness to unheard of cruelty. I want everyone to know this: our entire country stands with you, on behalf of all Canadians,&quot; he said in an emotional address to parliament.</p><div><iframe width="725" height="408" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YhPCQYegd6o" title="Canada&#x27;s Carney emotional after mass shooting at school" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div><p>Tumbler Ridge, a tight-knit community of about 2,400 residents, lies in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies near the provincial border with Alberta, hundreds of kilometers from any major city.</p><p>Carney described it as a tough, blue-collar place of &quot;miners, teachers, construction workers&quot; who represent &quot;the very best of Canada: resilient, compassionate and strong.&quot;</p><p>&quot;We&#x27;re one big family here,&quot; Mayor Darryl Krakowka told public broadcaster CBC.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;WILL GET THROUGH THIS&#x27;</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>&quot;We will get through this. We will learn from this. But right now, it&#x27;s a time to come together, as Canadians always do,&quot; Carney said.</p><p>He called off a planned trip to the Munich Security Conference in Germany.</p><p>Britain&#x27;s King Charles, the monarch of Canada, said in a statement that he and Queen Camilla were &quot;profoundly shocked and saddened&quot; by the attack.</p><p>&quot;In such a closely connected town, every child&#x27;s name will be known and every family will be a neighbor,&quot; he said.</p><p>School shootings remain rare in Canada, compared to the neighboring United States.</p><p>This tragedy ranks among the country&#x27;s deadliest, following the 2020 Nova Scotia mass shooting which claimed 22 lives and led to a ban on many assault weapons.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>SMALL COMMUNITY</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>Tumbler Ridge student Darian Quist told Canadian broadcaster CBC he was in his mechanics class when there was an announcement that the school was in lockdown.</p><p>He said initially he &quot;didn&#x27;t think anything was going on,&quot; but started receiving &quot;disturbing&quot; photos of the carnage.</p><p>He stayed in lockdown for more than two hours until police stormed in, ordering everyone to put their hands up before escorting them out of the school.</p><p>Area schools will remain closed for the rest of the week.</p><p>Pastor George Rowe of Tumbler Ridge Fellowship Church told CBC that it was &quot;very, very difficult to deal with.&quot;</p><p>&quot;Everybody here, practically, they know everybody...I don&#x27;t think it will be a big surprise when the name is released because you&#x27;re in a small community,&quot; he said.</p>

<p>Canadian police said Wednesday an 18-year-old carried out a mass shooting in a remote mining town, killing six people at a local school, after slaying her mother and stepbrother.</p>

Canadian police said Wednesday an 18-year-old carried out a mass shooting in a remote mining town, killing six people at a local school, after slaying her mother and stepbrother.

Canada police say 18-year-old carried out mass shooting

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Canada police say 18-year-old carried out mass shooting

Agence France-Presse

Published February 12, 2026 07:40 AM PHT

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