U.S. resident charged for allegedly giving advice, money to Tumbler Ridge shooter

U.S. resident charged with offering advice, money to Tumbler Ridge shooter in months before killings

FBI, RCMP share details on arrest of U.S. resident in connection with Tumbler Ridge shooting

I'm a senior reporter with CBC News. I'm in Seattle waiting for the news conference with RCMP and the DOJ to begin.

We've received a statement that says a Bellingham, Wash., resident provided advice, money and technical assistance to the Tumbler Ridge shooter.

James Cody Bryant, 30, was arrested today on a charge of conspiracy to murder persons in a foreign country.

In the release, police said they learned shortly after the shootings that Jesse Van Rootselaar had been speaking to someone on the social media platform Discord. Police said they identified that person as Bryant.

Police said Bryant agreed to assist Van Rootselaar and agreed to record and broadcast a livestream of the shootings.

Discord, a platform mostly known for its popularity with gamers, allows users to create private chat rooms only accessible by invitation.

Bryant allegedly sent money to Van Rootselaar to assist in the school shooting. Bryant also sent a lighter to be used to construct an explosive device to be detonated during the attack, police allege.

Bellingham is located around 25 kilometres south of the Washington state border with B.C.

The officers at the news conference are now taking questions.

Floyd says there was an attempt to livestream the shooting on Twitch, but it was shut down within seconds.

Harrington says investigators believe Van Rootselaar and Bryant met on Omegle — a chat-room site similar to Chatroulette — and kept in contact after the site was shut down in 2023.

"And then, ultimately, they began discussing what developed into this conspiracy."

Asked if investigators know whether Van Rootselaar was talking to anyone else online about her plans to carry out the shooting, Rain says they are still assessing other contacts and other social media the shooter was engaged with.

RCMP assistant commissioner Elija Rain is now speaking. He says within days of the shooting RCMP received info from one of the online platforms used by the shooter, and that's when the cross-border investigation began.

Rain says police are still analyzing the shooter's social media.

RCMP say the investigation is not over and further charges could be laid in Canada.

W. Mike Harrington, the special agent in charge for the FBI's Seattle bureau, says this complaint was particularly difficult to read, mainly because of how casually Bryant and Van Rootselaar talked about their violent plans.

Harrington says police aren’t sure Van Rootselaar would have committed the school shooting if Bryant had not agreed to livestream it, adding that she didn’t have many followers online.

Police say on several occasions Bryant tried to talk Van Rootselaar out of committing the attack but did not contact law enforcement.

He allegedly agreed to handle the livestream moments before the shooting.

Police said after Van Rootselaar shot and killed her mother and brother, she was unable to get the car outside to start. Bryant allegedly advised her how to get the engine to turn over, allowing the shooter to drive to the secondary school and put the rest of her plan in motion.

At the news conference, acting U.S. attorney Neil Floyd reiterated that Bryant had the knowledge and ability to alert law enforcement about Rootselaar's plans, but chose not to.

"Instead, he encouraged and offered assistance to a murderer," Floyd said.

Tumbler Ridge is still a community very much in recovery after suffering one of the largest mass shootings in Canadian history. Every new detail about that day can bring up difficult emotions for those living there.

The District of Tumbler Ridge has put together a list of community support, counselling and mental health services available through charities and health-care providers, and the province has promised to keep resources available for as long as residents need them.

A community recovery plan for families of the victims and residents affected by the February shooting was presented to the District of Tumbler Ridge council on Monday.

The plan is a living document, prepared in consultation over the last few months, and will inform how the community moves forward from the tragedy, identifying what support and resources they need.

B.C. NDP Leader David Eby, who is at an election campaign event in Coquitlam, B.C. today, was just asked by reporters about the arrest and said he couldn't share "anything at this time."

Eby followed up by saying he was "sending our continued love and support to families of the victims" and that "we are standing strong with them in their litigation against OpenAI in the United States."

I'm a CBC producer based in Prince George, about a 400-kilometre drive from Tumbler Ridge.

News that someone has been arrested in connection with February's mass shooting comes as a surprise because, to date, there has been no indication anyone else was involved other than the shooter.

We did know that Van Rootselaar had used OpenAI's ChatGPT program in advance of the shooting, but the news that a second person may have been involved in helping plan the shooting is not something that was publicly known before now.

Report details Tumbler Ridge shooter’s alleged ChatGPT interactions

U.S.-based magazine Mother Jones has reported details of the alleged interactions between Tumbler Ridge shooter Jesse Van Rootselaar and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, including disturbing chatbot prompts and responses about school shooting scenarios.

The Feb. 10 mass shooting left a deep scar on the small community of about 2,400 people in the foothills of the Rockies in northeast British Columbia.

Jesse Van Rootselaar shot and killed five students aged 12 to 13 that day, as well as a 39-year-old education assistant at the school, before killing herself.

Van Rootselaar, 18, had earlier shot and killed her mother and 11-year-old half-brother at their family home.

The shooter used OpenAI's ChatGPT in the months leading up to the attack. OpenAI has acknowledged that Van Rootselaar’s first account was flagged and shut down after she discussed committing an attack, but she created a second account that the company failed to identify.

According to reporting from Mother Jones, the second account was used to continue discussing violent scenarios, with ChatGPT allegedly providing information about weapons and the potential effects of a shooting.

OpenAI has apologized for failing to alert Canadian authorities about the activity and has said it is now working directly with the RCMP's cybercrime centre, and has strengthened its processes for assessing threats.

The B.C. government and families of victims and others affected by the shooting have since launched lawsuits against OpenAI.

- With files from Andrew Kurjata and Lauren Vanderdeen