It began so quietly. So quietly, that even the closest neighbour to the house on Fellers Avenue didn’t know what terror was unfolding until it was already done.
“I never heard anything,” Kelly Eagle would say later, leaning out his front door into the icy northern wind. “I never even heard a gunshot.”
Yellow crime scene tape remained stretched across the property next door, draped over a child’s bicycle on the snow-covered lawn.
How a day of fear and grief unfolded in Tumbler Ridge
The 911 call came in at 2:20 p.m. local time, and four RCMP officers were at Tumbler Ridge Secondary school two minutes later. Someone shouted out a window, “The suspect is upstairs!” as the officers ran inside.
There had been active shooter drills at the school before. Every school must plan for this, even in a country where shootings are rare. Even in a town where it is almost unfathomable.
In the shops class, teacher Jarbas Noronha blocked the door with heavy metal benches. Around the building, children and teachers barricaded doors, and packed together into closets, trying to keep the youngest ones calm while gunshots echoed outside.
Things like this don’t happen in a place like Tumbler Ridge. That’s what the locals thought, at least until Tuesday. And that’s how it feels here. The town is more than a 13-hour drive from Vancouver, hours away from even the closest regional airports. Set against the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains and flanked by forest, the town of 2,400 feels protected and peaceful, insulated from the problems of big cities and the outside world.
Tumbler Ridge was a planned community, established in 1981 as part of a government strategy to revitalize the area with coal mining. It was always meant to be sunny and bright, intentionally situated so that the houses would get the most light over the mountains, and focused around a townsite and community centre that would draw residents together. When the province planned to relocate residents after the town’s largest mine shut down in 2000, community members and local leaders fought to keep Tumbler Ridge alive. They won.
It’s the kind of place where it seems like everyone is connected to the town, and connected to each other.
“It just doesn’t seem real,” said Bernie Lehmann, a carpenter who previously worked at the Tumbler Ridge high school.
“The big question, obviously, is why? It’s just – I don’t know,” he said. “It’s hard to believe.”
As police raced into the school, phones around the small northern B.C. community came alive with the emergency alert: ACTIVE SHOOTER.
“Suspect described as female in a dress with brown hair. Shelter in place, report anything suspicious to police,” it read. “Do not attend school unless directed.”
Tracey Meehan didn’t think anything of the police cars parked outside her son Dennis’s high school, when she arrived early to pick him up on Tuesday afternoon. Then her phone glowed with the emergency alert.
As a woman with brown hair, she realized she matched the description of the suspect, and she worried about being mistaken for the shooter. She knew she couldn’t move for her own safety, and that she wouldn’t move with her son still inside.
Ms. Meehan lowered her seat back as far as it would go, to shield herself from view.
“I’m not a coward,” she told The Globe later. “My son is in there – I’m not going to go anywhere.”
Police tape surrounds the school in Tumbler Ridge on Thursday.Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press
At 3:06 p.m., the single mother texted her older son, Bronson: “Active shooter at high school. I’m hiding in my car. Kids have not come out of school. Cops everywhere with big guns. Very upsetting.”
Emergency vehicles raced to the area, with officers speeding in from the nearest communities first, Chetwynd, Dawson Creek, Fort St. John, others following. Some officers arrived at the school in tactical garb, racing inside with long black rifles.
Many of the paramedics and police who responded knew children inside.
The shooting was still happening as the first four police officers ran into the building and headed up the stairs, bullets flying around them as the fire alarms blared.
It was just seconds – few, but so long – before officers found the shooter. She was dead of a gunshot wound, apparently having taken her own life.
In the hallway, in the library, a scene beyond description. Five children and one teacher dead. Two other children seriously wounded.
From her car, Ms. Meehan watched one of the local police officers emerge from the school with an injured girl draped over his shoulder and place her on the ground, looking around as if he might see an ambulance. She says the officer picked the girl back up, put her in his police car and raced up the hill to the local medical centre, just up the slope from the school.
Family of Tumbler Ridge shooter issues statement
The school remained in lockdown as officers combed the halls and classrooms, ensuring there was no further threat. When the students were finally allowed to leave, they emerged in a line, faces grim and pained, hands raised above their heads, led by police to the local recreation centre next door.
Thirteen-year-old Mya LaRocque hid in a closet with her classmates during the shooting, listening to the sound of gunshots ringing out in the school. When they were finally allowed to leave, she left the school without her shoes, walking across the frozen ground. She never wanted to go back there again.
Mya’s grandparents, Linda and David LaRocque, had been outside the local health centre for an appointment on Tuesday afternoon when they heard an alarm coming from the school, just down the hill. They thought it was a fire drill, until they saw nurses running into the emergency area of the clinic. A woman told them there had been a shooting at the school, and that her daughter had been injured.
It was an endless hour before they were reunited with their granddaughter at the recreation centre.
“We found our baby,” said Ms. LaRocque. “I didn’t want to let go of her.”
Ms. Meehan, too, waited for what felt like a lifetime before she recognized her son’s lanky frame among the students leaving the school.
“All of a sudden, I see these flailing little arms and his little messy hair that he doesn’t want to cut. I’ve never been more happy to see that kid other than when he came out of me as a baby,” she said.
That night, Dennis told her about the sound of gunshots and how his tailbone grew sore from sitting on the ground, hiding from the shooter.
In the days after the mass shooting, teams of RCMP officers continued to process what they described as a highly technical and traumatic crime scene.Jesse Winter/The Globe and Mail
Other families weren’t so lucky.
There were the girls, all 12 years old. Kylie Smith, Zoey Benoit and Ticaria “Tiki” Lampert.
There were the boys, 12-year-old Abel Mwansa and 13-year-old Ezekiel Schofield.
There was the teacher, Shannda Aviugana-Durand, 39.
Two other girls were in critical condition, rushed by air to hospital in Vancouver. Maya Gebala was gravely injured, having been shot in the head and neck, after she tried to lock the library door against the shooter. Paige Hoekstra had been shot in the chest.
RCMP say none of the children was targeted.
“Suspect was, for lack of a better term, hunting,” RCMP Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald told the media on Friday. “They were prepared and engaging anybody and everybody they could come in contact with.”
In the house at 112 Fellers Ave. were two more victims. The shooter’s mother, Jennifer Strang, also identified by police as Jennifer Jacobs, and the shooter’s 11-year-old half-brother, Emmett. They had been the first killed.
Victims of the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting (from top, left to right), Abel Mwansa, 12, Kylie Smith, 12, Ticaria Lampert, 12, Ezekiel Schofield, 13, Zoey Benoit, 12, Emmett Jacobs, 11, and Jennifer Strang, also identified by police as Jennifer Jacobs, 39.Supplied
In total, there were nine dead, including the shooter, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar. The sunny, peaceful town of Tumbler Ridge forever changed.
“It feels like my heart, the fabric of my heart, has been absolutely torn asunder,” said Larry Neufeld, the MLA for the area, holding back tears as he sat in his car near the school the next day. Scores of police were working at the scene, and media crews lined the area outside the police tape.
“I don’t know how else better to describe it. I’m not feeling separation within the community of the community members,” Mr. Neufeld said, “but it’s the – I don’t want to say, the existence, the community itself – just the ability of it to survive as what it was.”
Remembering the Tumbler Ridge shooting victims: Eight lives lost
Trent Ernst, the publisher and lone reporter of the local newspaper, Tumbler RidgeLines, heard about the shooting from a friend whose children attended the school, and immediately raced over, going live on Facebook from his car to share everything he could about the situation.
Mr. Ernst, too, was in shock to be covering such an act of violence in his community. One of his children attended the school last year, and Mr. Ernst worked at the school for several months on a contract.
He recalled a time when, as a horrific murder story played out in the national news, he ran a front-page photo of a mother duck and her ducklings walking by his office. “This was breaking news in Tumbler Ridge,” he’d written in the paper then, “and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Now, Mr. Ernst struggled to hold back emotion as he tried to process such violence in a town that had always felt so safe.
“It’s just like, this is Tumbler Ridge. Who would do this in Tumbler Ridge?” he said. “Well, now the question is: Who would do this in Tumbler Ridge?”
Sarah Lampert, the mother of 12-year-old Ticaria Lampert, one of the children killed at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, holds pictures of her daughter.Jennifer Gauthier/Reuters
The identity of the shooter began leaking out within hours, circulating on social media before the RCMP made it official, and then quickly amplified by prominent accounts and right-wing influencers based on information that the shooter was trans.
Several high-profile accounts shared photographs and information about the wrong person, an unrelated individual with a similar name in Ontario.
In a press conference on Friday, RCMP addressed that person, saying “Zylee – this did not need to happen. We know you are not involved.”
They also released a verified image of the shooter, a slender young person with shoulder-length brown hair.
“I can say that Jesse was born as a biological male who approximately six years ago, began to transition to female and identified as female, both socially and publicly,” said Deputy Commissioner McDonald, at a press conference the day after the shooting. “It’s too early to say whether that has any correlation in this investigation. I think it’s important to recognize that this investigation is still in its infancy.”
Police tape is seen outside the home on Fellers Avenue where two people were found dead.JESSE WINTER/The Globe and Mail
Deputy Commissioner McDonald said Ms. Van Rootselaar had stopped going to school four years earlier, and that officers had been to the home on Fellers Avenue multiple times for calls related to the shooter’s mental health.
Ms. Van Rootselaar had been apprehended multiple times under the provincial Mental Health Act, and received intensive psychiatric treatment in hospital. The last interaction with RCMP was in the spring of 2025.
Guns are common in an outdoorsy community like Tumbler Ridge, and both Ms. Van Rootselaar and her mother held firearms licences, though the shooter’s had expired.
RCMP say a number of firearms were taken from the home by police two years ago, but the lawful owner successfully petitioned the courts to get them back. The guns were returned to the home about a month ago.
RCMP say there were two firearms found at the school and two found at the home. The primary firearm used in the school shooting is of unknown origin, and investigators are working to determine where the suspect got it.
The family house on Fellers remained cordoned off with police tape days after the shooting, with an officer stationed in a cruiser idling outside. Two children’s bicycles lay strewn on the lawn in the snow, alongside other detritus. A wagon wheel, a set of antlers, a child’s toy barn with the roof smashed in.
The grief is everywhere in Tumbler Ridge, underlying every interaction.
A woman sobs outside a restaurant. At the recreation centre, a clutch of teenage girls talk quietly about what kind of guns the shooter had, before they head out onto the ice. Out in the community, people embrace each other tightly in restaurants and parking lots and on the sidewalk, clasping each other in long tight hugs, whispering words to each other, tears rolling down their cheeks.
“Our community is crushed. Sleepless night. Devastating. People I know, people that I care about. I’m still in shock,” said Tanyia Fontaine, who has been living in Tumbler Ridge for eight years. She describes the community as her happy place, “her little oasis” and refuge from the world.
“It’s just so heartbreaking that I can’t even say how much my heart is broken. I haven’t stopped crying. I’m just fighting to try to stay strong for the kids here, but it’s really hard.”
At a community vigil the night after the shooting, Ms. Fontaine circulated through the crowd, passing out packages of tissues to those weeping, some keening with grief.
“It’s been very, very traumatic for everybody, and I think that it’s going to take a week or two for it to really hit,” she said. “I think we’re going to really crash. All of us are really going to need a lot of support.”
Tumbler Ridge Mayor Darryl Krakowka speaks during a community vigil at a makeshift memorial at the town hall, three days after the tragedy.Jennifer Gauthier/Reuters
Speaking at the vigil, and later at a press conference, Mayor Darryl Krakowka repeatedly encouraged people in his community to look out for each other, to hug each other and care for each other like family. To ask for help if they need it.
“We need to stay strong. We need to support each other as we grieve through this. It’s going to be days, it’s going to be weeks and months but we need to stay strong for those families that have lost a loved one,” he said. “But we’ve all lost somebody of our community, and we really, really need to be together and tight. And I know that we can do it.”
He recalled feeling the strong wind that began whipping through town after the shooting.
“I think it’s our angels that were flying through Tumbler Ridge,” he said. “I still believe they were here.”
The memorial that sprouted around a spruce tree at the vigil has grown fast and abundant. There are bouquets of brightly coloured flowers piled high, arrangements of teddy bears, candles, pictures of the child victims, and messages to those whose lives were lost: “You will be remembered.” “You were our light.”
At the school, a short distance away, teams of RCMP officers continued to process what they described as a highly technical and traumatic crime scene.
Standing in the sun in front of the memorial, Kevin Slaney struggled with his phone, trying to take a picture to send to his wife.
“Tumbler is such a beautiful town. I spent many years here, and got no intentions on moving,” said Mr. Slaney, who knew many of the victims because he likes to watch local hockey games. “For this to happen. You know, internationally, it’s putting its name on the map for a bad reason.”
The shooting has made news around the world, with leaders including King Charles and Volodymyr Zelensky expressing their shock and horror at such an inexplicable act of violence.
Asked how his community might begin to heal, Mr. Slaney’s voice quavered.
“I don’t know how to answer, to be honest with you. I came over here yesterday and everybody is quiet,” he said. “It’s going to be a big scar for a long, long time. It will never be fixed. It is unfortunate, because the people that come here just love this beautiful town.”
Two women from Grande Prairie, Alta., stood silently before the memorial, taking it in. They drove more than two hours over icy roads to bring a haul of snacks and stuffies and other supplies to the recreation centre.
“I grew up in a town this size, and I was given an incredible community that raised me, who loved me, who supported me when my family went through tragedy,” said Kathleen Neufeld, adding that it is “on the surrounding communities to be that extra backstop” so that the people of Tumbler Ridge can grieve together.
“We just wanted to make sure that there was lots there, so that when people are able to eat, that they might eat a little something,” she said.
The women said they wanted to show up with love, and that they hope people focus on remembering the lives of the children who were killed.
“This isn’t about the trans community. This is a sad situation that could happen anywhere, with anyone,” said Stephanie Hudson.
Above them, an electric sign that had advertised a cribbage tournament and other coming events at the community centre flipped to a new image.
Community members mourn together during a candlelight vigil.PAIGE TAYLOR WHITE/AFP/Getty Images
Now it showed a vivid red broken heart peeking out behind a mountain range, with a slogan that has become synonymous with communities seeking resilience after tragedy: Tumbler Ridge Strong.
At a makeshift service at New Life Assembly church on Thursday evening, Rev. Gerald Krauss stressed the importance of the community coming together in the wake of the tragedy, and urged the young people in attendance not to give into anger or hate.
“It’s hate the sin but love the sinner,” Mr. Strauss said.
When asked how the town can move forward, he said: “By loving each other.”
And amid so much darkness, a ray of light.
The family of Paige Hoekstra, one of the two injured girls, released a statement on Thursday saying said she’d undergone surgery for her bullet wound, and was “officially out of danger and in recovery.” A photo showed her in a hospital bed, sitting upright and clutching a big stuffed bunny.
It closed with a message from the 12-year-old: “I want to tell everyone that I am okay and I am recovering.”
With reports from Nathan VanderKlippe, Tom Cardoso and Salmaan Farooqui