Story summary
On February 10, 2026, a deadly school shooting occurred at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in British Columbia, Canada, leaving six students, one teacher, and three family members dead. The perpetrator, Jesse Van Rootselaar, an 18-year-old who had been transitioning from male to female, opened fire before taking their own life.
In a surprising twist, on February 28, 30-year-old James Cody Bryant of Bellingham, Washington, was arrested and charged with conspiracy to murder persons in a foreign country. Prosecutors allege that Bryant offered technical advice, money, and assistance in livestreaming the attack via Discord over several months leading up to the shooting.
Bryant's alleged involvement highlights concerns about online conspiracies facilitating such tragedies, drawing attention to potential regulatory gaps around digital platforms used for malicious planning. The case also brings scrutiny on AI tools like ChatGPT, which flagged communications from Van Rootselaar but did not alert authorities beforehand due to company policies.
A press conference by the U.S. Department of Justice is set to provide further details about the charges and Bryant's alleged role in facilitating the deadly attack.
Written for “Tumbler Ridge School Shooting Suspect…” on 2026-10-08,
grounded in this article and the 14 other(s) covering the same event.
More details have emerged about the U.S. suspect accused of encouraging and advising the B.C. teenager who shot and killed multiple people in Tumbler Ridge earlier this year.
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who → emerge → Ridge
Court documents reveal the 30-year-old from Bellingham, Wash., was closely connected to the shooter online for months.
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old → reveal → months
Global News knocked on the door of the unit where James Cody Bryant lived, but the person living there responded from behind the door, saying they did not want to comment.
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they → knock → door
Bryant, who according to authorities is trans and identifies as female, was arrested at the complex in Bellingham by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday.
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who → accord → Tuesday
“I guess I’m kind of stunned,” neighbour Preston Coffelt said.
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Coffelt → guess → ?
“It’s not something I’d expect to happen two buildings down.”
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I → ’ → ?
Bryant appeared in a Seattle courtroom on Tuesday on a federal felony charge of conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country.
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Bryant → appear → country
U.S. authorities have released months of alleged online correspondence between Bryant and B.C. teenager Jesse Van Rootselaar before and during the massacre on Feb. 10 in which eight people were killed.
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people → release → which
The claims have not yet been tested in court.
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claims → test → court
The two had met online about three years earlier, investigators said.
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investigators → meet → ?
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They met on the now-defunct Omegle messaging app, which enabled conversations with strangers but was closed down not long afterwards over lawsuits about child safety.
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which → get → safety
The two fell out of contact when Van Rootselaar was institutionalized after setting their room on fire.
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Rootselaar → fall → fire
After that, they spoke daily in the six months before the murders, the FBI said.
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FBI → speak → murders
“One thing that surfaced pretty soon after the shooting occurred was the company Discord identified some connections between the shooter and an individual in the United States, and notified the Canadian authorities — the RCMP,” said W. Mike Herrington, the special agent in charge of the FBI in Seattle.
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Herrington → surface → Seattle
“RCMP reached out to U.S. authorities, and we immediately began looking into this individual in the United States to see, you know, what was going on there.”
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what → reach → States
Discord is an online messaging and chat platform in which users can create different communities, like a hybrid between Slack and Reddit.
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users → create → Slack
It was initially built for gamers but is now used for many different purposes, such as social group communications.
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It → build → communications
Discord’s website says it collects certain information from users, including content users created.
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users → say → content
“What Discord identified was a series of conversations that were dating back months or even years, where the shooter and the individual in the United States had ongoing discussions — a rather voluminous amount of discussions,” he added.
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he → identify → discussions
“This was their primary means of communicating, and they communicated quite regularly.”
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they → communicate → ?
Herrington said the FBI interviewed Bryant two days after the shooting in Tumbler Ridge.
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FBI → say → Ridge
The U.S. complaint against Bryant alleges the two spent months discussing tactics, locations and weaponry for the attack on Discord before they attempted to livestream the murders on Twitch.
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they → allege → Twitch
The FBI said Van Rootselaar communicated online with Bryant, even sending photos on Discord showing what they were wearing for the attack.
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they → say → attack
Neighbours and coworkers say Bryant, who has asked to be identified as female in court proceedings, presented as one in everyday life.
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who → say → life
“When you’re dressing like a girl, you’ve got your long hair and your fingernails done, you just assume,” neighbour Rodney Green said.
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Green → dress → girl
Bryant’s boss at a local McDonald’s said they were a reliable employee who worked at the fast food location for several years.
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who → say → years
The manager told Global News their staff are shaken by the FBI allegations that Bryant entertained Van Rootselaar’s musings on achieving mass shooter notoriety and causing maximum damage.
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Bryant → tell → damage
Bryant was allegedly more concerned about not being caught, telling Rootselaar, “I think we should find a way to delete all our messages.”
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we → catch → messages
“What we did see was, at some points, a bit of mixed feelings about this,” Herrington said.
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Herrington → see → this
“But ultimately, Bryant was fully supportive to the point of providing, not just emotional support, but advice, financial support, material support to purchase items.”
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Bryant → provide → items
“As well as ultimately, when it came down to it, made a very strong and repeated commitment to Van Rootselaar to conceal this plan and the impending attack from law enforcement before it occurred.”
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it → come → enforcement
Eight people, including six children, were killed in Tumbler Ridge before Van Rootselaar died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
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Rootselaar → include → wound
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