Jesse Van Rootselaar aka Jesse ‘Jess’ Strang Transgender ex student id as Tumbler Ridge shooter with history of ongoing mental health crises and who was an advocate of inclusive trans identity and rights as British Columbia, Canada officials seek to understand what led to mass school shooting that led to 9 dead, 25 injured.
A former student at a British Columbia secondary school in Canada with a history of mental health issues and who began transitioning from biologically born male to female in 2019 has been identified as the individual who shot and killed 9, including themselves along with injuring another 25 persons, including two who are now fighting for their lives.
Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18, who was born male, began transitioning six years ago and identified as female, Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said during a Wednesday news conference, one day after Tuesday’s tragedy at Tumbler Ridge Secondary school.
Tumbler Ridge school shooter was born biologically male but began to transition 6 years ago to female
The shooter who was born Jesse ‘Jess’ Strang was identified Van Rootselaar using her chosen name, McDonald said and had dropped out of the secondary school some four years ago. Why and how the teen chose to target their former school was not immediately known.
Leading up to the school shooting, the official said Van Rootselaar killed her 39-year-old mother (Jennifer Strang) and 11-year-old stepbrother at their home in the tiny hamlet of Tumbler Ridge, about 700 miles north of Vancouver. She then went to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and apparently began shooting at random, McDonald said.
She killed five people at the school, one in a stairwell and the rest in the library, McDonald said. They victims were three 12-year-old girls, a 12-year-old boy, a 13-year-old boy and a 39-year-old woman who worked as a teacher at the school. Police initially had said there were six victims at the school but corrected that to five on Wednesday, saying a woman airlifted to the hospital in critical condition was mistakenly counted as being among the dead.
Police said the shooter killed themselves after police descending at the school, with Van Rootselaar initially firing shots in their direction before running inside a school building. Responding officers discovered Van Rootselaar dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. A long gun and a modified handgun were found at the scene.
When pressed, RCMP said they were not concealing that Jesse Van Rootselaar identified as transgender. Born male, he began transitioning about six years ago and identified as “female.”
Police said it is too early to determine whether gender identity is connected to the incident. pic.twitter.com/Nfa7q9RxSY
— Juno News (@junonewscom) February 11, 2026
A video posted to r/transguns shows Tumbler Ridge school shooter Jesse Strang firing a Desert Eagle at a shooting range.
The footage was sourced from his since-deleted Reddit account, “jesseboy347.”
Follow: @AFpost pic.twitter.com/4cUL3FGL2X
— AF Post (@AFpost) February 11, 2026
Family firearms had previously been seized amid mental health concerns
According to McDonald, police had responded to Jesse Van Rootselaar’s home on ‘multiple occasions’ over the years over ongoing mental health concerns.
A couple of years ago, the official said that police seized firearms from the home and had taken Van Rootselaar in for assessments at hospitals under Canada’s Mental Health Act. McDonald said police last visited the home sometime last year and didn’t know if Van Rootselaar was actively getting treatment for her mental health troubles.
During a later point in time, ‘the lawful owner of those firearms petitioned for those firearms to be returned and they were,’ the official told reporters.
McDonald said that Van Rootselaar did not have any firearms registered in her name.
Tumbler Ridge shooter was transgender all inclusive rights & identity advocate
A regard of the teen shooter’s social media profiles inferred an adoption of trans inclusivity.
In an Instagram from July, 2024, Strang posted a picture of a trans-inclusive pride flag emblazoned with the message ‘good people don’t spend their time harassing marginalized communities.’
Describing herself as a ‘conservative-leaning libertarian,’ Van Rootselaar aligned herself with the flag’s message.
‘I really hope the hate I see online is just bored old people and not true hatred. Do better and educate yourself before spewing bulls–t online,’ she wrote. ‘Do you have any idea how many kids are killing themselves over this kind of hate?’ she asked before concluding her post with the hashtag #ProtectTransKids.
Asked as to the trans school shooter’s motives, McDonald responded, ‘we don’t have an idea yet.’
Asked by a reporter whether the official believed there was any correlation between Van Rootselaar identifying as transgender and the shooting, McDonald said it’s ‘too early to say.’
The shooting is the latest in a number of mass shootings committed by individuals who identify as transgender over the past decade.
- Robin Westman, the Minneapolis school shooter who killed two kids and injured 21 others last August, identified as a transgender woman.
- Audrey Hale, who killed six people at Nashville’s Convent School in 2023, was also transgender.
- Alec McKinney, who took part in the 2019 Colorado charter school shooting, was born female but identified as male.
- Snochia Moseley, a transgender (male to female), murdered three and injured three others in 2018 in a Maryland Rite Aid warehouse shooting.
Only two shootings in Canadian history have claimed more victims.
