1 month after Tumbler Ridge shooting, community taking recovery day by day

A small B.C. community devastated by a mass shooting is still searching for answers, while trying to find a way to heal.

On Feb. 10, the community of Tumbler Ridge was forever changed when 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar killed eight people before taking her own life.

Van Rootselaar killed her mother and 11-year-old half-brother in their home in the community, then went to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, where she killed five students and a teacher’s aide, and wounded Maya and another student, before shooting herself.

“I don’t know if healing is the right word, it’s a word I’d be very reticent to use,” said B.C. Conservative MLA Larry Neufeld, who represents the riding that Tumbler Ridge is located within.

“But the community is moving forward,” he continued.

“Tomorrow is better than today, today is better than yesterday,” he said.

Neufeld said he was there over the weekend when the last of the deceased was laid to rest.

He did not disclose who that was for privacy reasons.

Meanwhile down in Vancouver, one of the survivors, 12-year-old Maya Gebala continues to recover in hospital after being shot three times in the head, neck and face.

On Monday, her family filed a lawsuit against American firm OpenAI, saying its ChatGPT bot provided “information, guidance and assistance” to carry out such an attack.

On Tuesday, B.C. Attorney General Niki Sharma told reporters she understood the family’s decision.

“The justice system is there to find accountability and answers, and I can see that that’s an important step,” she said.

Sharma said she wasn’t sure yet if the province will be filing any lawsuits itself, but that she continues to follow the ongoing investigations.

While a coroner’s inquest has been called to examine the circumstances around the shooting, Neufeld is renewing his calls for a public inquiry.

“It has broader powers, broader legal powers to compel evidence,” he said.

“The massive failure that we’ve seen in this situation and the other mass casualty event, Lapu Lapu, the commonality is a complete failure of the mental health system, that’s something we need to dig into,” Neufeld said.

Neufeld is encouraging British Columbians to continue showing support for the community as time goes on.

“The concern is that once the spotlight is gone and moved on to something else, that the community will be forgotten,” he said.

“I will work very, very hard to ensure that doesn’t happen.”