A 30-year-old Washington state resident accused of encouraging the February Tumbler Ridge School shooter faced charges after court filings described months of daily online contact.
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A 30-year-old Washington state resident has been charged in connection with the Tumbler Ridge School mass shooting in February, with court documents alleging he encouraged the shooter to carry out the deadly violence and offered assistance before the attack.
According to the court filings, the online relationship between James Cody Bryant and Jesse Van Rootselaar began about three years before the shooting, but became daily contact in the six months leading up to the attack.
The documents allege Bryant gave the shooter money and advice and helped escalate the situation, including allegedly promising to livestream the attack.
“I think what stands out, you know, I’ve been studying extremism for about 20 years, I’ve read through hundreds of attacker manifestos and hundreds of court documents, spoken to extremists myself,” said Amarnath Amarasingam, an associate professor at Queen’s University who specializes in extremism and radicalization.
Amarasingam said the complaint reflects “the kind of banality of some of their discussion.”
He added that even with the seriousness of the alleged plans, the conversation was described as involving “this kind of ordinary friendship” around shared trauma related to their transgender identities, alongside “quite jarring plotting and planning of killing dozens of people and live-streaming it to the public.”
In remarks reported Tuesday, Neal Floyd, acting U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington, said Bryant “had been in repeated contact with the shooter, offering advice, sending money and even agreeing to livestream the horrific event.”
Floyd also said Bryant “had the information and ability to alert law enforcement, and even discussed that possibility with the shooter, but he chose not to,” adding that instead he “encouraged and offered assistance to a murderer.”
Authorities said Bryant and Van Rootselaar were born male but both identify as female.
The court documents described planning around the live stream on the day of the shooting, with Bryant telling Van Rootselaar that the livestream was on while Van Rootselaar was still at their house, before it went down about 10 minutes later.
The filings also include questions about whether the attack would bring followers, with Van Rootselaar asking Bryant if the deadly shooting would get them any fans and Bryant replying, “I think you definitely would.”
Amarasingam said mass shooters often express a desire for their actions to mean something in order to gain attention, and he pointed to social media dynamics in which “notoriety becomes a kind of status” within such groups.
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