How a day of chaos and heartache unspooled in Tumbler Ridge

Nothing is too far apart in tiny Tumbler Ridge, B.C., and there was a well-worn path between the local RCMP detachment and the nondescript brown timber home on Fellers Avenue, less than a kilometre away.

The detachment’s five officers, headed by Sgt. Bill Hughes, handled a little over 100 crimes a year, according to recent crime statistics.

But their repeated interactions at the home that troubled teenager Jesse Van Rootselaar shared with her siblings and mother Jennifer Jacobs were different.

RCMP say there had been a series of mental-health calls to the home over the years. Guns were seized, then returned. And on at least two occasions, Van Rootselaar was detained under British Columbia’s Mental Health Act.

It was at the home on Fellers Ave., a bicycle on its side in the snowy front yard, that the tragedy that claimed nine lives on Feb. 10 began unfolding. Hours later, police would enter the home to find Jacobs and Van Rootselaar’s 11-year-old half brother, Emmett Jacobs, dead from shotgun blasts.

What unfolded in those hours — at the home and at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, where five children, a teaching assistant, and finally, Van Rootselaar herself died — has been pieced together from statements by police and officials, and personal accounts from students, teachers and parents.

They included moments of tragedy, heroism and unbearable grief that have put the coal-mining community of fewer than 3,000 residents in B.C.’s remote Peace region under an international spotlight.

‘CHAOTIC SCENE’

Police say Van Rootselaar was wearing a dress and carrying a long gun and a modified rifle, as she made her way to the school around 2 p.m. mountain time, where a vehicle associated with her was later found parked outside.

In the words of RCMP Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald, Van Rootselaar then began “hunting” victims, apparently at random. She made her way through an atrium and upstairs. One victim was found dead in the stairwell.

On the next level was the glass-enclosed library, where some of the youngest students in the school, a group of 12- and 13-year-olds had gathered as the school day wound down.

Teacher Mark Deeley was one of the first to hear the sound of gunshots, and he recognized them immediately. In an account later shared by B.C. Premier David Eby, Deeley barricaded the science class to protect his students, as well as two younger children who were pulled inside.

It was a decision both heroic and heart-rending — Deeley’s own son Finn was still outside, having gone to the bathroom moments before the shooting started.

Deeley called his wife, Tumbler Ridge Secondary principal Stacie Gruntman, who activated the piercing fire alarm and called police around 2:20 p.m.

Grade 12 student Darian Quist told Global News that as the alarm sounded, Gruntman went down the halls, telling classes to lockdown and close their doors.

Two minutes after being alerted, police were at the school — the RCMP detachment is just 600 metres away. There was RCMP Sgt. Bill Hughes, a 21-year veteran of the force, along with constables Jonathan Kohut, Tyler Noon and Nick Gachter. They began encountering victims moments later.

It was, said McDonald, a “chaotic” scene.

“The fire alarms were going off. There was somebody that either leaned out or shouted out a window to our officers: ‘The suspect is upstairs, he’s upstairs,'” said McDonald.

Van Rootselarr was transgender, having started transitioning about six years ago, said McDonald.

The police made their way up the stairwell towards the second level and the library. They were also met with the sounds of more gunfire.

McDonald said the next moments were captured on video: In a “matter of seconds” there was another burst of gunfire, not directed at police as initially reported, before Van Rootselaar shot herself dead.

“I can say with confidence that from the moment the suspect encountered police, there were no further injuries to any other students in the school,” McDonald said.

In the library, police walked into a horrific scene. Most of the young victims were found there.

Dead in the library and elsewhere were Abel Mwansa, Kylie Smith, Zoey Benoit and Ticaria Lampert, all aged 12, as well as 13-year-old Ezekiel Schofield and educator Shannda Aviugana-Durand, 39.

Among those gravely wounded was 12-year-old Maya Gebela.

Her aunt, Krysta Hunt, told media that her niece tried to lock the library door “from the shooter to save the other kids” and then ran to hide under a table when she was shot.

Her parents, Cia Edmonds and David Gebala, said their daughter was shot in her neck and in the head, just above her left eye.

Also among the wounded was 19-year-old Paige Hoekstra, who was shot in the chest. She is now recovering and her family has said she is out of danger.

A total of about two-dozen people had injuries, although police later clarified that most were not from gunshots.

The classrooms remained locked down as police tried to establish if there was an accomplice.

In Deeley’s classroom, the older students worked to ensure the younger ones felt safe, offering snacks and making jokes. Finn left the washroom to sneak back to his father’s class, while Deeley decided to leave the room to see if he could be useful.

He came across a critically injured student in the hallway and brought them back to the classroom where two other students helped administer first aid.

Media reports have cited how other students sheltered in place, several reporting hiding in closets, terrified, during the shooting.

In a post to social media afterward, Deeley said he “never felt alone.”

“I knew from the moment it started that the other teachers and staff were going to do their best to protect our kids. I cannot mention names or specifics but it is important that you know the adults you trusted your kids to tried very hard to shelter and protect our kids,” he said.

That, he said, included “barricading doors, keeping kids calm, distracting them and making them feel loved.”

“These are the actions that my colleague took and the actions I knew that they were taking as soon as it started,” he wrote.

Van Rootselaar was now dead, but the situation remained unclear at the school and the broader community.

‘WHERE ARE OUR KIDS?’

At 2:47 p.m., police were called to Jacobs’s home on Fellers Ave.

A girl at the home had notified a neighbour about what would later be established as the first crime scene. Police have not said who the girl was in relation to the home or Jacobs, who had five children.

When police entered they discovered the bodies of Jacobs and 11-year-old Emmett. They also found a number of firearms, including the unregistered shotgun believed to have been used to kill the mother and son; most types of shotguns do not have to be registered if the owner has a valid Possession and Acquisition Licence.

A photograph posted by Jacobs in 2024 showed several long guns in a cabinet, including what appears to be a shotgun.

While police had seized guns from the home before, later returning them to the person who owned them, McDonald later clarified that neither the shotgun nor the main weapon used at the school, which had an unknown origin, had ever been in police custody.

As police came to understand that the bloody scene at Fellers Avenue was likely related to the school shootings, they issued an emergency alert about an active shooter around 3:15 p.m., telling residents to shelter in place.

A news release about an hour later said the shooter was dead but officers were working to determine whether there was a second suspect. There was not.

The alert was cancelled at 6:45 p.m., with officials saying they “do not believe there are any outstanding suspects or ongoing threat to the public.”

After police determined the school was safe, they evacuated more than 100 students and faculty who were inside and brought them to the local community centre. Students were seen on video leaving the school with their hands in their air as alarms continued to blare.

At the centre, there ensued a heartbreaking wait for parents hoping to be reunited with their children.

For some, it never came.

Tracy Krauss, a local pastor, attended the community centre with a friend who was looking for her son after the shooting. She recalled sitting with the parents as they waited to be reunited with their children.

Krauss said most of the students were gathered on the bleachers and, after hours of waiting, police began letting parents take their kids home around 7 p.m.

“And there we were, left with this small group of parents and their loved ones who’d gathered wondering ‘where are our kids?,'” she said.

Minutes ticked by and no one dared voice out loud what they all suspected.

“It was quite late by the time they finally started pulling the parents aside one by one and letting them know that their child didn’t survive,” Krauss said.

In the hours and days that followed, as the scale of the tragedy emerged, condolences poured in from around the world, from King Charles, as well as the political leaders of Ukraine, Australia, Britain and beyond.

The community rallied and created a memorial in the town centre, while friends and families of the victims shared photos and memories of the victims online.

Fundraising campaigns were also launched, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The community held a candlelight vigil Friday night that was attended Prime Minister Mark Carney, as well as the leaders of all federal parties, and others politicians.

Carney’s message to the community was one of hope and admiration for how they responded to the tragedy.

“First responders (were) at the school in less than two minutes, teachers shielding (the) children. You held each other as you’re holding each other right now,” he said.

Questions around what will happen to the small community remain, including the fate of the town’s only high school.

Christy Fennell, the superintendent of the Peace River South school district, said in a letter to families on Friday that the expectation is that students will not be returning to the school, though future plans would be announced soon.

Eby told the community Friday that he knows there is likely anxiety about returning to the school.

“I will promise you that not one of you will ever be forced to go back to that school. We will provide a safe place for you to go to school,” he said, referring to the students as “the future of Tumbler Ridge.”

“Things are going to be different, but there are going to be things that are familiar, and one of those things is the courage and the bravery and the amazing kids, the students, the young adults, the people of Tumbler Ridge.”

— With files from Brenna Owen and Jack Farrell in Tumbler Ridge, B.C.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 15, 2026.

Brieanna Charlebois, The Canadian Press