Canadian flags at half-mast as country mourns deaths in Tumbler Ridge, B.C.

Police behind street blockades strung yellow tape around buildings in the tiny British Columbia community of Tumbler Ridge on Wednesday morning as families grieved and officials worked to understand a mass shooting at a school and home that left 10 dead, including the shooter.

The previous afternoon, Tumbler Ridge Secondary School was a scene of chaos and fear as the town went on lockdown, with video showing students walking out of the building with their hands up.

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The next morning, residents were slip-sliding around banks of snow and sheets of ice on otherwise quiet streets of one-story homes in this former coal boom town in the northeast B.C. wilderness where lowlands of white spruce and lodgepole pine slam into the hard rock of the Hart range of the Rockies.

Condolences for Tumbler Ridge poured in from across the province, Ottawa and as far away as Asia and war-torn Ukraine.

In Ottawa, Prime Minister Mark Carney ordered flags lowered to half-mast on government buildings and the Peace Tower for seven days.

“Parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, are waking up this morning, without one of their loved ones. It is a difficult time. Canada is grieving, grieving with you,” the prime minister said as he spoke to reporters in Ottawa.

In Great Britain, King Charles said in a statement that he and his wife express their deepest possible sympathy.

“In such a closely connected town, every child’s name will be known and every family will be a neighbour,” the statement said.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “no one should remain indifferent” when children are killed.

“Such tragedies should never happen anywhere, in any country in the world,” he wrote.

Expressions of sympathy also came from French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

RCMP have said police were “not in a place” to understand what motivated the shooter who is suspected of killing two people at a home before going to the school and committing one of Canada’s worst mass shootings.

Police said the shooter died by suicide at the school.

RCMP Supt. Ken Floyd said Tuesday that about 25 people were hurt at the school, including two with life-threatening injuries.

Tuesday’s lockdown lasted several hours, after police were called about an active shooter at the school at 1:20 p.m. Residents sheltered in place in homes and community spaces as police searched for a suspect described as a “female in a dress with brown hair.”

While police initially said they were searching for a possible second suspect, Floyd, the RCMP North District Commander, later said the shooter acted alone, and that they were the person described in the alert.

Tumbler Ridge Mayor Darryl Krakowka said that when he first heard the toll of the shootings that have devastated the community, he “broke down.”

“I have lived here for 18 years,” he said of the community that he called a “big family.”

“I probably know every one of the victims.”

Police did not give the ages of the victims, and Floyd said he could not provide more details about the shooter. Floyd told a briefing that about 100 students and staff were evacuated from the school.

Carney said Tuesday that he had connected with B.C. Premier David Eby to express his condolences, while federal Minister of Public Safety Gary Anandasangaree was co-ordinating the federal response.

B.C. Solicitor General Nina Krieger said that police were at the school within two minutes of receiving the call.

Floyd said that police who entered the school encountered a “very dramatic scene,” finding six victims dead, as well as the body of the shooter, while another person died on the way to hospital.

B.C. Emergency Health Services says it received an initial call at 1:22 p.m. “Paramedics provided emergency medical treatment to two patients who were transported by air ambulance to hospital, one in critical condition, and one in serious but stable condition,” the service said in a statement.

“We are not in a place now to be able to understand why and what may have motivated this tragedy,” Floyd said.

“This was a rapidly evolving and dynamic situation, and the swift co-operation from the school, first responders, and the community played a critical role in our response.”

Eby said he wanted British Columbians and all Canadians “to wrap the people of Tumbler Ridge, wrap these families, with love.”

— Ashley Joannou and Nono Shen in Vancouver and Wolfgang Depner in Victoria

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 11, 2026.