A 30-year-old has been arrested in Western Washington and charged in connection with the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
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A 30-year-old has been arrested in Western Washington and charged with conspiracy to murder in a foreign country in connection with the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Tuesday morning.
Acting U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd is expected to announce details of the arrest at 12 p.m. PCT in Seattle, where the Attorney General’s Office said law enforcement leaders from the U.S. and Canada are scheduled to join.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the statement issued Tuesday morning did not provide further information about the identity of the person arrested. The person is scheduled to appear at the U.S. District Courthouse at 2 p.m.
On Feb. 10, 2026, the small B.C. community of Tumbler Ridge was struck by tragedy when 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar killed her mother and brother at their home before killing five students and an educator at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School. Van Rootselaar then shot herself dead.
Details revealed since the shooting say Van Rootselaar was coached and given tactical advice about how to conduct a mass killing using an artificial intelligence chatbot. OpenAI said shortly after the murders that it shut down Van Rootselaar’s first ChatGPT account, but she opened a second account that was not discovered until after the killings.
The account of the alleged chatbot coaching was also reported in an article published by U.S. magazine Mother Jones in September, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office statement referenced in the report.
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