A trail of police calls, 'violent' online activity, and gun access for Tumbler Ridge mass shooter – Vancouver Sun

Jesse Van Rootselaar had a troubled history and mental health issues, recently calling violent online content ‘addictive’
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Jesse Van Rootselaar grew up moving between provinces, her life marked by court battles and a troubled history with mental health. By the time she turned 18, she had access to firearms in the northeastern community of Tumbler Ridge, B.C. — a failure, critics say, of Canada’s firearms licensing system.
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On Tuesday, RCMP say the 18-year-old went on a shooting rampage, targeting students and relatives at both her home and a local high school, killing eight people, including her mother and stepbrother. She also killed herself. Authorities recovered a long gun and a modified handgun at the scene.
The mountain-surrounded town of roughly 2,400 residents is small and heavily tied to hunting and outdoor life. Brian Landry, an RCMP-certified firearms instructor who works with residents in Tumbler Ridge, Dawson Creek and surrounding areas, said the system “failed” in Van Rootselaar’s case.
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“An individual with mental illness slipped through the cracks. This person should have never been in a place where they had access to firearms,” Landry said.
In Canada, youth aged 12 to 17 can apply for a minor’s firearms licence with parental consent, personal references and a medical background check. This allows them to borrow non-restricted firearms for approved purposes such as target practice and hunting, which are commonplace in B.C.’s rural towns. At age 18, licence holders must reapply for a standard possession and acquisition licence.
RCMP say Van Rootselaar had a firearms licence that expired in 2024. Authorities said officers had been called to the family’s home repeatedly over the years for mental health concerns. More than once, police apprehended Van Rootselaar for assessment under the province’s Mental Health Act.
Two years ago, police seized firearms in the home under the Criminal Code, but they were later returned to the lawful owner following a petition. The last police visit, in spring 2025, was in response to concerns about the suspect’s mental health and possibility of self-harm.
“Where the shooter lived, if she had documented mental health issues, there should have never been firearms in the home,” Landry said.
Landry described security requirements taught during the eight-hour firearms possession course: guns must be stored in a locked safe, with keys kept inaccessible to just anyone. If not, others living in the residence are legally considered to have access.
Van Rootselaar’s passion for firearms was shared by her mother, Jennifer Strang, 39.
“Think it’s time to take them out for some target practice,” the mother captioned a 2024 Facebook photo of multiple rifles in a hunting box.
Years earlier, Strang — who was one of Van Rootselaar’s shooting victims — encouraged Facebook friends to follow the page in a July 2021 post, noting the child “posts about hunting, self-reliance, guns and stuff.” Archived copies of the now-deleted account showed videos of Van Rootselaar practicing shooting a tactical 12-gauge shotgun and a semi-automatic rifle at a range. The account’s profile description last read: “None of this makes sense.”
Another of Van Rootselaar’s social media profiles, a TikTok account that is now private, reposted several videos of 2023 Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale.
U.S.-based Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism said Thursday in a preliminary investigation that it found that Van Rootselaar “followed a troubling pattern of online radicalization marked by engagement with violence and gore content.”
It reported Van Rootselaar was active on WatchPeopleDie, a forum that hosts videos of people being maimed or killed.
In a post to the forum this year, Van Rootselaar called violent content “addictive.”
“I’ve tried to stray away from watching this type of thing before cuz it really sucks me in and is a massive useless time dump,” the post read. “To say it ‘doesn’t (a)ffect me’ is likely naive.”
Landry said the Canadian Firearms Program, run by the RCMP, has strict laws in place to prevent people with documented interactions with police over mental health concerns from possessing or having access to firearms.
“Everyone with a firearms licence is monitored by being run through federal screening every 24 hours,” Landry said, noting he has held his firearms possession licence since 1995.
“I’ve known cases where someone gets a criminal record, and their license is immediately revoked, along with their spouse being sent a letter ordering them to remove all the guns from the house,” he said.
He added that only members of the RCMP and the army can legally possess a modified firearm, such as the handgun recovered in the attack.
In rural communities such as Tumbler Ridge, Landry said not having a gun license is the exception, as firearms are common for hunting, protecting livestock and outdoor life. There is a single gun club in town, the Tumbler Ridge Sportsmen’s Association.
“Guns are not the problem. They do not have a mind of their own. They cannot get up and kill people. It’s the wrong people who get access to them,” he said. “There is simply not enough mental health resources in rural communities like ours to help people with such issues.”
Speaking from Tumbler Ridge on Wednesday night and fighting back tears, B.C. Premier David Eby promised he “will get answers to all questions” about Van Rootselaar’s interactions with police and mental health services, including why weapons were taken from the family home and later returned. Eby said he would use all avenues of investigation to answer every question raised by the killing.
The suspect, a transgender woman, began transitioning six years ago and dropped out of school four years ago, RCMP said.
Van Rootselaar and her siblings lived a “nomadic lifestyle,” moving between Newfoundland, Grand Cache and Powell River for years after Strang separated from the suspect’s father in 2009, court records show.
“It can hardly be the case that the children are tied in any meaningful sense to that one location,” Justice Anthony Saunders wrote in a 2015 B.C. Supreme Court ruling that found that Strang had moved the children to Newfoundland without giving the father the legally required notice.
The ruling ordered the mother to allow the children regular phone contact with their father, who had been trying to build a relationship. Strang said she moved the family to Newfoundland to be close to family support while pregnant.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism now says that an X account that appeared to belong to the shooter “has been found not credible” and has removed references to it. This story has been updated.
grochowski@postmedia.com
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