Police have identified the suspect in a school shooting in Canada as an 18-year-old who had prior mental health calls to her home and who was found dead following the attack that killed nine people in a remote part of British Columbia.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald on Wednesday (February 11, 2026) said Van Rootselaar had a history of mental health contact with police and that the suspect’s mother and stepbrother were also found dead in a home near the school.
The motive remained unclear.
More than 25 people were wounded on Tuesday (February 10, 2026) in the attack in the small mountain community of Tumbler Ridge, including two with life-threatening injuries who were airlifted for medical care, police said.
The village of 2,700 people in the Canadian Rockies is more than 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) northeast of Vancouver, near the provincial border with Alberta.
“Parents, grandparents, sisters, and brothers in Tumbler Ridge will wake up without someone they love. The nation mourns with you, and Canada stands by you,” Prime Minister Mark Carney said as he arrived in Parliament.
The attack was Canada’s deadliest rampage since 2020, when a gunman in Nova Scotia killed 13 people and set fires that left another nine dead.
Carney said flags at government buildings will be flown at half-staff for seven days and added: “We will get through this.” Shelley Quist said her neighbour across the street lost her 12-year-old. “We heard his mom. She was in the street crying. She wanted her son’s body,” Quist said.
Quist said her 17-year-old son, Darian, was on lockdown in the school for more than two hours. The provincial government website lists Tumbler Ridge Secondary School as having 175 students in grades 7 to 12.
“The grade sevens and eights, I think, were upstairs in the library, and that’s where the shooter went,” she said. Her son was in the library just 15 minutes prior to the attack.
Quist was working at the hospital down the street when the shooting started.
“I was about to go run down to the school, but my co-worker held me back. And then I was able to get Darian on the phone to know he was OK,” she said.
School shootings are rare in Canada, which has strict gun-control laws. The government has responded to previous mass shootings with gun-control measures, including a recently broadened ban on all guns it considers assault weapons.
British Columbia Premier David Eby told reporters that police reached the school within two minutes.
A video showed students walking out with their hands raised as police vehicles surrounded the building and a helicopter circled overhead.
Police found six people dead, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superintendent Ken Floyd said. A seventh person died while being transported to a hospital, and two more were found dead at a residence that authorities believe was connected to the attack.
Mr. Floyd told reporters that investigators had identified the suspect but would not release a name. He said police were investigating the connection between the shooter and the victims.
Tumbler Ridge Mayor Darryl Krakowka said it was “devastating” to learn how many had died in the community, which he called a “big family”.
“I broke down,”Mr. Krakowka said. “I have lived here for 18 years. I probably know every one of the victims.”
The school district said the high school and elementary school will be closed for the rest of the week.
Mr. Carney’s office said he called off a planned trip to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Munich, Germany. He had been set to announce a long-awaited defence industrial strategy on Wednesday (February 11, 2026) in Halifax before heading to Europe for the Munich Security Conference.
Mr. Eby on Tuesday (February 10, 2026) said he had spoken to the Prime Minister about the “unimaginable tragedy”.
“I know it’s causing us all to hug our kids a little bit tighter tonight,” he said. “I’m asking the people of British Columbia to look after the people of Tumbler Ridge tonight.”
Published – February 12, 2026 03:01 am IST
