By JIM MORRIS and ROB GILLIES, Associated Press
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — A shooting at a school in British Columbia left seven people dead, while two more were found dead at a nearby home, Canadian authorities said Tuesday. A woman who police believe to be the shooter also was killed.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said more than 25 people are injured, including two who were airlifted to hospital with life-threatening injuries, after the shooting at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School.
School shootings are rare in Canada.
The town of Tumbler Ridge in the Canadian Rockies is more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) north of Vancouver, near the border with Alberta. The provincial government website lists Tumbler Ridge Secondary School as having 175 students from Grades 7 to 12.
British Columbia Premier David Eby told reporters that police officers reached the school within two minutes.
A video showed students walking out of the school with their hands raised as police vehicles surrounded the building and a helicopter circled overhead.
Police found six people dead, a statement said. A suspect appeared to have died of a “self-inflicted injury.” An eighth person died while being transported to a hospital, and two more were found dead at a home the authorities believe was connected to the attack.
RCMP Superintendent Ken Floyd told reporters that investigators had identified a female suspect but would not release a name, and that the shooter’s motive remained unclear. He added that police are still investigating how the victims are connected to the shooter.
Tumbler Ridge Mayor Darryl Krakowka said the whole community is grieving.
“I broke down,” he said, saying it was “devastating” to learn how many had died in the community of 2,700, which he called a “big family.”
“I have lived here for 18 years,” Krakowka said “I probably know every one of the victims.”
The Rev. George Rowe of the Tumbler Ridge Fellowship Baptist Church went to the recreation center where the victims’ families were awaiting more information.
“It was not a pretty sight. Families are still waiting to hear if it’s their child that’s deceased and because of protocol and procedure the investigating team is very careful in releasing names,” Rowe said. “The big thing tonight was my having to walk away and the families still waiting to find out. It is so difficult. Other pastors and counselors are there so they are not alone.”
Rowe once taught at the high school and his three children graduated from there.
“To walk through the corridors of that school will never be the same again,” he said.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a social media post that he was devastated by the shooting in Tumbler Ridge.
“I join Canadians in grieving with those whose lives have been changed irreversibly today, and in gratitude for the courage and selflessness of the first responders who risked their lives to protect their fellow citizens,” he wrote.
Carney’s office said he is suspending a planned trip to Halifax, Nova Scotia and Munich, Germany. He was set to announce a long-awaited defense industrial strategy in Halifax on Wednesday before heading to Europe for the Munich Security Conference.
Eby, the province’s premier, told reporters he had spoken to Carney after what he called the “unimaginable tragedy.”
“I know it’s causing us all to hug our kids a little bit tighter tonight,” he said. “I’m asking the people of British Columbia to look after the people of Tumbler Ridge tonight.”
Canada’s government has responded to previous mass shootings with gun control measures, including a recently broadened ban on all guns it considers assault weapons.
Tuesday’s shootings were Canada’s deadliest rampage since 2020, when a gunman in Nova Scotia killed 13 people and set fires that left another nine dead.
Gillies reported from Toronto.
