James Cody Bryant, centre, is seen in a court sketch drawn during the accused's appearance in U.S. District Court in Seattle on Oct. 6.Lois Silver/The Canadian Press
The lawyer for a Washington resident accused of conspiring with the Tumbler Ridge shooter told a judge Tuesday his client has co-operated fully with police since the February shooting and does not pose a threat to the public.
The accused, James Cody Bryant, 30, of Bellingham, Wash., appeared in U.S. District Court in Seattle for a pretrial detention hearing Thursday. Ms. Bryant goes by Melody and uses she/her pronouns, according to her lawyers.
She wore glasses, and a beige button-down jumpsuit over her slight frame. Her long hair reached past her shoulders.
Ms. Bryant’s lawyer, public defender Gregory Murphy, argued his client could be safely released before trial under conditions, including potential house detention, a mental health assessment and strict monitoring of her online activities.
He noted Ms. Bryant, who was arrested last week, was shocked by the shooting and has co-operated with police since the days after it occurred.
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“Words fail when we talk about the horror of what Van Rootselaar did ... Ms. Bryant, I think, feels that also,” Mr. Murphy said, referring to shooter Jesse Van Rootselaar. He noted his client has sobbed during interviews with the FBI.
But the judge rejected the defence’s request and opted to keep Ms. Bryant in custody.
Ms. Bryant faces charges of aiding Ms. Van Rootselaar, 18, in planning and executing the mass shooting at a school in the northern B.C. mining town in February.
Ms. Van Rootselaar killed her mother and half-brother at their family home on Feb. 10 before proceeding to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, where she killed five students and an educational assistant. She then turned a gun on herself. It was the deadliest school shooting in Canadian history.
Assistant United States Attorney Todd Greenberg argued in court that Ms. Bryant should be detained given the seriousness of the charge against her: conspiracy to murder persons in a foreign country.
“It doesn’t get much more serious, much more dangerous for the community,” Mr. Greenberg said. He argued there was no combination of release conditions that could satisfy the risks Ms. Bryant poses to herself and to the community. He also raised the possibility that she would fail to appear at future court dates.
Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree says it was 'devastating' to see allegations that a Washington State resident had conspired with the Tumbler Ridge shooter before and after the deadly attack. MP Bob Zimmer, whose B.C. riding includes Tumbler Ridge, says the suspect's arrest is an important step toward getting answers.
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She has been recently employed, Mr. Greenberg said, but it is unclear whether that employment is still open to her. Releasing her is “simply too big of a risk to take,” Mr. Greenberg said.
But Mr. Murphy highlighted that the criminal complaint against Ms. Bryant describes his client at times attempting to dissuade the Tumbler Ridge shooter from going through with the attack.
He called it “factually inaccurate” to suggest that Ms. Bryant wanted the murders to happen.
“She is, like we all are, horrified.”
In court documents, Mr. Murphy noted Ms. Bryant has had stable employment, lived with roommates, had no criminal history and has strong community ties.
Mr. Murphy noted in court that the vast majority of the evidence police are now relying on was already in their possession in March, but they waited another seven months before seeking an arrest warrant for Ms. Bryant, leaving her unsupervised in the community.
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She has co-operated at every stage of the investigation, he said. He questioned why the government believes she poses a risk to the community now.
Throughout the afternoon’s arguments, Ms. Bryant sat flanked by two U.S. Marshals. She remained still and had few visible reactions. At one point she appeared to use a tissue to wipe away tears.
A federal criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court includes chat records of the friendship between Ms. Bryant and the shooter, and the months they allegedly spent planning the attack. The allegations have not been tested in court.
Ms. Van Rootselaar and Ms. Bryant are believed to have met about three years ago on Omegle, a now-defunct website that randomly paired users for one-on-one text or video conversations.
The two continued to stay in touch on other platforms, including Discord, which allows users to chat via text, voice and video.
The Discord chat logs included in the court documents show the two discussed possible locations for the shooting, with the shooter wanting one that would “lead to the largest number of victims.” Ms. Bryant said it would be a “bad idea to attack a school because there would be too many young victims” and suggested instead a grocery store or church. The logs show that they discussed streaming live video of the attack online.
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Ms. Bryant is also alleged to have provided money to the shooter to purchase items for use during the attack, including the shoes she intended to wear, a lighter to ignite an explosive device and stickers to decorate the firearms. The pair tested the livestream at least twice, once in August, 2025, and again in January, 2026, according to the court documents.
Mr. Greenberg argued in court that Ms. Bryant is one of the few people who, on the day of the shooting, could have stopped the carnage but chose not to.
The shooter, he said, messaged Ms. Bryant asking for help with her livestream for the shooting, and also to help her start a car that she used to drive to the school after telling Ms. Bryant she had killed her family members. Ms. Bryant provided the help, Mr. Greenberg said.
Mr. Greenberg argued that Ms. Bryant’s living situation, in a house with roommates that contained at least 10 internet-capable devices including multiple computers and gaming consoles, made it virtually impossible to enforce any restriction on internet access for Ms. Bryant.
Mr. Murphy countered that any devices shared between roommates could be effectively monitored. He also said Ms. Bryant is not a member of a community of violent people, or a frequenter of chat rooms or other networks where such things are discussed.
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There is no evidence that Ms. Bryant has ever communicated with anyone else the way she did with the Tumbler Ridge shooter, Mr. Murphy said.
“She’s not some sort of political radical.”
Before issuing her ruling that Ms. Bryant should be detained, U.S. District Court Judge Mary Alice Theiler said her task was to determine if it was possible for Ms. Bryant to be released on conditions that could mitigate risk to the public.
A report identified serious mental health and substance abuse concerns, Judge Theiler said, all of which compound the difficulty of crafting conditions.
Ultimately, the judge said she was not able to see any combination of release conditions that could satisfy the risks and ordered Ms. Bryant detained.
A grand jury is currently weighing whether to indict Ms. Bryant.
B.C. RCMP, who have been working with the FBI, are continuing their criminal investigation in the province and have signalled a possibility of pursuing further charges in Canada.
With reports from Andrea Woo, Alanna Smith and Temur Durrani