First chilling pictures of Tumbler Ridge school shooter released after deadly rampage

Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18, fatally shot six people and wounded 25 others in one of the country’s deadliest school shootings ever – they are pictured grinning holding a rifle in one haunting picture

The first images have surfaced of the alleged school gunman in one of Canada’s most devastating mass shootings.

Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18, is accused of gunning down six people and injuring 25 others at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in British Columbia, Canada, on Tuesday, February 10, reports the Manchester Evening News..

The rampage marks the second-most lethal school shooting in Canadian history, following the massacre of 14 students at Montreal’s L’Ecole Polytechnique in 1989.

A disturbing photo depicts Van Rootselaar grinning whilst clutching a rifle, though when the image was taken remains unknown.

The victims at the school comprised three 12 year old girls, two lads aged 12 and 13, and a 39 year old female teacher, according to police.

Two additional casualties, 39 year old Jennifer Strang and an 11 year old boy, were confirmed by authorities as Van Rootselaar’s mother and stepbrother, both shot before the school assault.

Officials confirmed that Van Rootselaar, who identified as transgender and used female pronouns, perished from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on school grounds, taking the total death count to nine.

Locals in Tumbler Ridge, an isolated community of roughly 2,400 residents nestled in the Rocky Mountain foothills, received emergency text warnings on Tuesday afternoon urging them to take shelter due to an active gunman.

The Mirror previously reported that the alert characterised the suspect as a “female in a dress with brown hair”. Officers stormed the school to neutralise the threat and discovered the shooter, now deceased.

The suspect was identified as Van Rootselaar, a resident of Tumbler Ridge.

Two firearms were seized from the scene – a long gun and a modified handgun.

When quizzed by journalists about whether Van Rootselaar was transgender, Deputy Commissioner McDonald stated that the police were identifying 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 six years ago began to transition to female and identified as female, both socially and publicly,” he further clarified.

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