"Police have attended that residence in the past, approximately a couple of years ago, where firearms were seized."

"I can say that at a later point in time the lawful owner of those firearms petitions for those firearms to be returned and they were."

"I can say with confidence that from the moment the suspect encountered police, there were no further injuries to any other students in the school."  

"In speaking with investigators, there was no specific targeting of any individuals [at the school],"

"This suspect was, for lack of a better term, hunting. They were prepared and engaging anybody and everybody they could come in contact with."

"We're trying to determine how our suspect got that firearm, and that investigation is continuing." 

RCMP Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald 

 

"Identifying individuals who are no longer eligible for a firearms licence as quickly as possible and ensuring they can no longer access firearms is an important public safety objective."

Canadian Firearms Advisory Committee 

A vigil in Tumbler Ridge. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

 

Canada remains in mourning yet incredulous that a young man of 18 living in a remote British Columbia town of some 2,300 residents where everyone is reputed to know everyone else, chose to enter the Tumbler Ridge Secondary school with two lethal weapons to begin firing at random, killing six students from ages 12 to 13, and a 39-year-old teacher before his rampage came to an end with the intervention of two members of the local RCMP detachment. 

 

That stunning attack with its consequent victims occurred just a short time after 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar had killed his 36-year-old mother and 11-year-old stepbrother at the family home, located a short distance from the school.

 

The Tuesday killing represented one of Canada's worst mass murder events in recent history. A biological male who six years ago transitioned to female, the attacker had long brown hair and wore a dress as he rampaged through the school killing three 12-year-old girls, a 12 and a 13 year-old boy, and the teacher. Most of the deaths occurred in the school library. One of the boys was found dead in a stairwell. 

 

It took a mere two minutes for two RCMP officers to respond and arrive at the scene when they were alerted at 1:00 p.m. Tuesday. They drew fire from the killer; failing to respond, they bought time by distracting the killer from hunting down any more victims; instead he turned his weapon on himself, committing suicide. A short while later, a young neighbour who had gone to the family home of the killer, discovered the mother and brother dead and she contacted the RCMP.

 

Getty Images

 

The mother, as it happened, was a gun aficionado. Who presumably taught her son to appreciate weapons for target practice and hunting...and, as the mother noted on a social media posting for 'self-reliance'. She had a gun licence and owned a number of long guns herself and took pride in using them. Her son had mental issues, well known to the RCMP who had responded on a number of occasions at the family home to issues related to the boy's mental health.

 

In Canadian gun law firearms are to be removed from any home that houses an individual with mental illness. Police, according to RCMP Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald had gone to the home a number of times. There was more than one time when the killer, under the terms of the Mental Health Act was taken into custody. Jennifer Strang, the killer's mother (now deceased) in an August 2024 Facebook post, showed an image of a safe with six long guns, with the caption: "think it's time to take them out for some target practice".

 

An earlier post in 2021 had Jennifer Strang promoting a YouTube channel by her son, stating it was where "He posts about hunting, self-reliance, guns and stuff he likes to do". Canadian law enforcement can legally seize legal firearms without a warrant should an officer believe that to do so is in the "interests of the safety of the person or any other person". The Possession and Acquisition Licence of legal gun owners can also be unilaterally suspended.

 

The federal government mere weeks ago kicked off its Assault-Style Firearms Compensation Program, a 'buy back' program for firearms covered by the 2020 ban under the government bans through a 'freeze' on the sale or transfer of legal handguns. The SKS, a Russian-produced semi-automatic rifle had been overlooked in the banned list even though it has the same function as banned rifles like the Ruger Mini-14.

 

As it happened, an SKS was among one of the long guns in the possession of the Tumbler Ridge killer's mother. It was shown among those demonstrated in her Facebook post of 2014. This was the same rifle that appeared with an avatar of the YouTube channel her son started. In the annals of preventable homicides, all details pulled together, this horrible event rates a number one. 

 

Tumbler Ridge, B.C., victims identified by police