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The investigation into last week’s shootings in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., that claimed nine lives has moved into a new phase after police cleared the two crime scenes.
While police say the only known suspect in the case, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, killed herself as police closed in Tuesday, questions remain.
By Friday, police had interviewed more than 80 students, educators, and first responders, with more underway. They are also gathering digital evidence, including videos shot at the school, CCTV footage and video from police body-worn cameras.
Here’s what we know about the investigation so far:
THE CRIME SCENES
Police tape came down Saturday at the home Van Rootselaar shared with her siblings and mother, Jennifer Jacobs, who had five children. The home was where police found the bodies of Jacobs and 11-year-old Emmett Jacobs, Van Rootselaar’s half brother.
Police also completed investigations at Tumbler Ridge Secondary school, about 1.6 kilometres away, where Van Rootselaar shot dead five children aged 12 and 13 and a teaching assistant.
RCMP say the final moments of the rampage were captured on video at the school. RCMP Assistant Commissioner Dwayne McDonald said Friday that the video showed a final burst of gunfire, which “was not directed at any persons,” before Van Rootselaar shot herself dead. The video has not been made public.
THE GUNS
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RCMP say an unregistered shotgun was used to kill Jennifer and Emmett Jacobs. Police had previously seized guns from the home under the Criminal Code and returned them after a request from their owner. But McDonald said the shotgun had never been seized. A second weapon found at the home is also under investigation, and other weapons have been seized.
A photo posted on social media last year by Jennifer Jacobs, who held a gun licence, showed at least six long guns, including what looks like a shotgun. Shotguns and other unrestricted weapons do not need to be registered if the owner has a valid Possession and Acquisition Licence.
Police say Van Rootselaar took two weapons to the school, a long gun and a modified rifle, which was previously reported to be a modified handgun. The main firearm used in the killings at the school had never been seized by police. McDonald declined to describe it Friday, because of its “unknown origin.” He said investigators are looking into whether other parties were involved “in terms of procuring that weapon.”
McDonald said Van Rootselaar had a gun licence that expired in 2024 and had no weapons registered to her.
MENTAL HEALTH
McDonald said last week that police had attended Jacobs’s home on “multiple occasions” over the past several years due to concerns about Van Rootselaar’s mental health. She was apprehended at least twice under B.C.’s Mental Health Act and taken to hospital “in some circumstances.”
He said he didn’t know if Van Rootselaar was receiving care at the time of the attacks.
THE MOTIVE AND THE VICTIMS
Police have said that they don’t believe Van Rootselaar was targeting specific victims. McDonald has said she was “hunting.”
Van Rootselaar was “prepared and engaging anybody and everybody they could come in contact with,” McDonald said Friday.
Van Rootselaar was not related to any of the victims at the school, although her mother was a friend of the mother of 12-year-old Maya Gebala, who is gravely wounded in hospital.
Police said last week they had no information about whether Van Rootselaar had been bullied at school and officers didn’t find a note. Van Rootselaar dropped out of school four years ago. She was transgender and had started transitioning about six years ago, McDonald said.
Autopsies on the victims were expected to have been finished have finished by Sunday, including for the shooter.
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