A gunman opened fire in western Canada on Tuesday killing eight and injuring dozens more in one of the deadliest shootings in the country’s history. It also marked the latest act of violence in North America to be carried out by a man pretending to live as a woman.
The Shooting
As reported on Thursday’s AM Update, police received reports of an active shooter at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, located in the rural British Columbia town, around 1:20pm local time Tuesday. According to British Columbia Premier David Eby, law enforcement arrived at the scene within two minutes.
Authorities found six of the victims dead at the school before discovering the bodies of two more victims at a residence in the remote town, which has just 2,400 residents. The gunman also injured 25 people, including two with “serious or life‑threatening injuries,” according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
The death toll was originally reported to be nine, but Dwayne McDonald, a deputy commissioner at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in British Columbia told reporters at a Wednesday press conference that one of the victims previously believed to have died in transport to the hospital actually remains in critical condition.
He also offered additional details about the victims. “The deceased victims from the school include an adult female educator, three female students, and two male students between the ages of 13 and 17,” McDonald told the media. “Two additional victims, an adult female and a male youth, were located deceased in the local residence.” The New York Times identified the victims at the residence as the 18-year-old shooter’s 39-year-old mother and 11-year-old stepbrother.
The Shooter
Police found the suspect dead at the school, which has an enrollment of around 175 students in grades 7 to 12, from a “self-inflicted injury.” Authorities have since come under fire for what they did and did not say about the suspect in the aftermath of the shooting.
An initial alert issued about the active shooter at the school Tuesday afternoon described the suspect as a “female in a dress with brown hair.” Police Superintendent Ken Floyd later characterized the shooter in a press briefing as a “gun person,” fueling speculation that the shooter may have identified as ‘transgender.’
On Wednesday, RCMP confirmed the speculation, identifying the shooter as a resident of Tumbler Ridge who was born male and began presenting as a girl around the age of 12. At the press conference, Commissioner McDonald pushed back on claims that authorities were withholding the information about the shooter, instead saying the department is simply respecting his identity.
“We’re not hiding it,” he said. “I will say this. We identify the suspect as they chose to be identified in public and in social media. I can say that Jesse was born as a biological male who approximately, the information that I have, approximately six years ago began to transition to female and identified as female both socially and publicly.”
When a journalist subsequently referred to the shooter as a “he,” McDonald issued a correction. “So, the suspect is identifying as an 18-year-old female,” he responded.
Mental Health Concerns
The deputy commissioner also detailed the shooter’s troubling home life to reporters. “We have a history of police attendance at the family residence. Some of those calls were related to mental health issues,” McDonald explained. “Police had attended that residence on multiple occasions over the past several years, dealing with concerns of mental health with respect to our suspect, I can say that on different occasions, the suspect was apprehended for assessment and follow up.
He went on to reveal “firearms were seized” during one of the law enforcement visits, and the most recent police call to the residence where the mother and stepbrother were shot was in spring 2025.
McDonald told reporters on Wednesday that a motive is unclear at this time.
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