B.C. attorney general to provide update on legal options after deadly mass shooting

The British Columbia government says it’s exploring legal options after the mass shooting where eight people were killed in Tumbler Ridge. 

Attorney General Niki Sharma is expected to meet with media today about those options, five months after the deadly shooting in the community in northeastern B.C. 

Public Safety Minister Nina Krieger said in May that the police investigation into the shooting was in its final stages, and a coroner’s inquest had been called. 

The shooting left nine dead, including 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, whose use of ChatGPT before the shooting is now the subject of multiple lawsuits against the chatbot’s creator OpenAI and the company’s founder Sam Altman. 

The lawsuits against the artificial intelligence firm include an action filed in B.C. Supreme Court in March by the guardians of 12-year-old Maya Gebala, who was shot in the head but survived. 

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced last month that the federal government would contribute $200 million toward building a new high school in Tumbler Ridge and to modernize the local health-care centre. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 7, 2026.

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