Families in the remote Canadian town of Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, are mourning eight people killed in a mass shooting Tuesday that tore through a home and a secondary school, claiming the lives of five children and a teacher. Police identified the shooter as 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, who later died by suicide.
Among the victims was 12-year-old Kylie Smith, remembered by her family as “a beautiful soul.” Kylie was killed alongside four other children and a teacher at the town’s secondary school, authorities said. Earlier, a woman and an 11-year-old boy were found dead at a residence in Tumbler Ridge, where police said the attacker first killed her mother and stepbrother before targeting her former school.
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The deaths have rattled the tight-knit community, where nearly everyone knows someone directly affected. The attack is among the country’s worst-ever mass shootings, and it has left families navigating unbearable grief while police piece together a full timeline.
“She was just a beautiful soul. She’s a light in our family,” Kylie’s father, Lance Younge, said, recalling the morning he watched Kylie leave for school with her brother, Ethan—unaware it would be the last time. “She loved art and anime. She wanted to go to school in Toronto, and we just loved her so much.” He said Kylie was thriving in high school and was “the last person who ever deserved this.”
Younge described the agonizing wait for news after shots were reported, and said “a hero named Maddie” performed CPR on Kylie before telling the family she had died. He urged the public and media to center the victims and the people who tried to save them, not the shooter. “These kids were lost before they got to become teenagers,” he said. “So let’s put their pictures up and remember them, not this murderer.”
Another 12-year-old, also named Abel, was among those killed. His father, Abel Mwansa, wrote in a Facebook post that his son loved school so much he once cried when home schooling was suggested. He taught his son, he said, to respect his elders, “be strong, work hard, put a smile on the face like I do, focus on his studies, never miss school and to be a good kid.” In a separate post, he added: “Seeing your child murdered at this age is heart breaking.”
As news spread, hundreds gathered in a main square in Tumbler Ridge for a candlelight vigil, clutching each other and weeping in the cold. Mayor Darryl Krakowka urged the community to remain united. “This is like one big family,” he told the crowd. “If you need a hug, put your hand out. Reach out to your neighbour.”
Longtime resident Kevin Matthews, who has lived in Tumbler Ridge for more than two decades, said nearly everyone in town has a connection to those killed. “The path forward is to be with grieving families,” he said.
Police identified the shooter as Van Rootselaar, who was born male but began identifying as female six years ago. Authorities said she killed her mother and stepbrother before the school attack, then took her own life. No motive has been released.
The loss has left parents, classmates and teachers grappling with the scale of the violence and the futures cut short. In Tumbler Ridge, tributes piled up: candles guttering in the wind, hand-drawn posters from classmates, and photographs of smiling children who would not grow older. The names and stories of the victims, families say, are how they want this tragedy to be remembered.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
