By The Canadian Press

No mention of concerns from OpenAI day after Tumbler Ridge shooting: B.C. government

Feb 21, 2026 | 12:44 PM

British Columbia’s government says OpenAI had a preplanned meeting with provincial officials the day after a deadly shooting at the secondary school in Tumbler Ridge, but the company made no mention of concerns it had regarding the shooter’s online interactions with its ChatGPT program.

The province says the day after the meeting, OpenAI requested contact information for the RCMP.

On Feb. 10, Jesse Van Rootselaar shot and killed eight people, including six at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, before killing herself.

A report from The Wall Street Journal says that employees with the artificial intelligence company considered alerting authorities about the shooter’s worrisome interactions with its chatbot months before the shootings.

Premier David Eby says in a statement that reports that allege OpenAI had related intelligence before the shootings are “profoundly disturbing for the victims’ families and all British Columbians.”

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Eby says police are pursuing orders regarding the preservation of potential evidence related to the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge held by digital services companies, including social media platforms and AI companies.

RCMP have said that Open AI reached out the police after the shooting and that “digital and physical evidence is being collected, prioritized, and methodically processed” as part of the ongoing investigation.

The Wall Street Journal report says Van Rootselaar made posts with ChatGPT about scenarios of gun violence that were flagged by OpenAI’s automatic review system last June.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 21, 2026.

The Canadian Press