A timeline of how the Tumbler Ridge shootings unfolded

2:22 p.m.: At the same time BC Emergency Health Services say they receive their first call for medical help, police arrive at the scene as fire alarms ring inside the school. Someone shouts out a window to the officers: “the suspect is upstairs.” 

Police immediately enter the school and go up the stairs, where they are met with gunfire. 

Seconds later, there is more gunfire from the suspect that police say was not directed at any person but herself. They say once the suspect encountered the officers, “there were no further injuries to any other students in the school.”

2:47 p.m.: Police are called after a “young female” alerts a neighbour. Two people are found dead in a home. They have since been identified as the suspect’s mother and brother.

Around 3:15 p.m.: An emergency alert is sent to the phones of residents of Tumbler Ridge. It warns of a suspect “described as female in a dress with brown hair.” Residents are told to shelter in place.

4:16 p.m.: RCMP issue a news release saying police are on the “scene of a confirmed active shooter incident at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School. They say the “original suspect” is believed dead but they are determining if a second suspect is involved.

6:45 p.m.: The alert is officially cancelled as police “do not believe there are any outstanding suspects or ongoing threat to the public.”

7 p.m.: RCMP issue a statement saying seven people, including the suspect, have been found dead at the school, and two other people have been found dead at a residence “believed to be connected to the incident.”

7:45 p.m. Supt. Ken Floyd tells reporters that police are “not in a place” to understand the shooter’s motivations. He confirms the deceased shooter is the same person described in the alert.

Feb. 11, 2026, 1:25 p.m.: RCMP issue a news release naming the suspect as 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, a resident of Tumbler Ridge. Police say there are six deceased victims from the school, including five children and one adult. Two additional victims, an adult woman and child, were found dead in a local residence. 

In a news conference, RCMP say the victims found dead in the residence are Van Rootselaar’s mother and brother. 

Feb. 12, 2026, 2:14 p.m.: RCMP issue a news release confirming the names of the victims. The victims from the school are Abel Mwansa, Kylie Smith, Zoey Benoit and Ticaria Lampert, age 12, Ezekiel Schofield, age 13 and Shannda Aviugana-Durand, 39. The victims from the residence on Fellers Avenue are Emmett Jacobs, 11, and Jennifer Jacobs, 39. 

Feb. 13, 2026, around 2:05 p.m.: Speaking to reporters outside the community’s town hall, RCMP Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald says investigators don’t know where the primary gun used in the shooting at the school came from. Four guns were seized in total, he says, two from the family home and two from the school.

McDonald says investigators believe Van Rootselaar was not targeting specific people, but was ‘hunting,” and was prepared to engage with anyone. 

2:30 p.m.: Prime Minister Mark Carney and other party leaders attended a memorial site in the community. Carney, his wife Diana Fox Carney, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, NDP interim leader Don Davies, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet attended.

They set flowers on the growing memorial where cards, mementoes, candles and stuffed animals have been piling up since Tuesday, then stood silently, shoulder to shoulder, with their heads bowed. 

The leaders embraced before leaving the memorial site. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2026