Front Burner - Tragedy in Tumbler Ridge

Episode Date: February 12, 2026

A horrific mass shooting took place in the small community of Tumbler Ridge, B.C. on Tuesday – one of the deadliest in Canadian history.Nine people are dead, including the suspect, and 27 more were injured. Many of the victims were as young as 12 or 13 years old.CBC senior reporter Caroline Barghout is in Tumbler Ridge covering the ongoing investigation. She joins host Jayme Poisson with the latest on the tragedy, and how a community – and country – is in mourning.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

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This is a CBC podcast. Hi, everyone. It's Jamie. Today we're going to take you through everything we know and don't know about the horrific mass shooting in Tumblr Ridge, British Columbia on Tuesday. It is one of the worst mass shootings in Canada's history. Many of the victims are as young as 11, 12 years old. I'm here with my colleague Caroline Bargut. She's been reporting from the community. Caroline, hi.

Thank you so much for making the time to do this. Hi, Jamie. Thanks for having me. So you and I are talking at 5 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, and just a few hours ago, the RCMP actually released quite a bit of information about what happened. Upon arrival, there was active gunfire, and as officers approached the school, rounds were fired in their direction. Officers entered the school to locate the threat. Within minutes, an individual confirmed to be the shooter was located deceased. Nine people are dead, including the shooter, 27 others injured. The suspected shooter, an 18-year-old named Jesse Van Rout Solar died from a self-inflicted injury at the school.

And what do we know right now about the victims who were killed at Tumblr Ridge Secondary School? So RCMP say that there were six victims at the school, a 39-year-old adult female educator, three 12-year-old girls, a 12-year-old boy, and a 13-year-old boy. We know that one of the victims was located in a stairwell and the other victims were located upstairs in a library. We also know that two female victims were airlifted to hospital, right? A 12-year-old and a 19-year-old who both remain in serious condition. And then most of the other people injured were released quite soon after. They were brought to hospital, right? Right. RCP originally said yesterday that there was two. two people airlifted in critical condition. Now they're saying they're critical but stable. They also had said initially that one person was transported to hospital but died on the way. Today,

they said that in fact was inaccurate and that that person did not die. And so they revised their numbers from nine deceased to eight deceased. Okay. So that we do know. And I should mention about those 25 victims. So police said initially, you know, when they got to the scene, obviously, you can imagine it was quite chaotic. And so they had 25 people with injuries. They didn't know if they had suffered gunshot wounds or not. They're now saying that it doesn't appear that they were shot. I don't want to speculate.

I don't have the exact details, but you can imagine in a chaotic situation where the students and faculty are barricading themselves in room that any types of injuries could result. Some of them had some injuries possibly from trying to get out of the way of the shooter, but they don't appear to be critically injured. I was really struck by just how young some of these children were,

really only middle schoolers, mostly born in 2012, 2013. Do we have any confirmation on the victim's identities yet or have any of the families spoken out here? At this point, we have not. I mean, we have seen quite a few Facebook posts. We've seen, you know, a lot of chatter online, social media posts, But we have had nothing confirmed at this point, as far as we know. We also have seen fundraising websites, people trying to raise money for individuals that they're saying are victims.

But we have at this point not been able to confirm all of those cases. The shooter was a local resident of Tumblr Ridge. And what else do we know about Jesse Van Rutz Oortzilar right now? We learned quite a bit from the RCMP press conference. that you said was just a couple of hours ago. So Jesse Van Routzilar is an 18-year-old local resident who was born male but transitioned to female six years ago. We identified the suspect as they chose to be identified in public and in social media.

I can say that Jesse was born as a biological male who approximately the information that I have approximately six years ago began to transition to female and identified as female both socially and publicly. We also know that she dropped out of school. She used to attend Tumblr Ridge Secondary School, but dropped out four years ago, and that there was a long history of association with police. So police said that they had been called to the home numerous times over the years

for mental health-related issues. Police had attended that residence. on multiple occasions over the past several years, dealing with concerns of mental health with respect to our suspect. I can say that on different occasions, a suspect was apprehended for assessment and follow-up. On one occasion, firearms were seized from the home, and then a petition was made to have those firearms returned.

Those firearms were returned. At this point, we don't know. or don't believe that the firearms were registered to Jesse, but police are still in the process of investigating. Okay. And just right now, we have no idea about any kind of motive here. No, at all. And police said that, you know, at the press conference, a reporter asked,

did this not like to leave a note or any other communication in advance of it? Not that we've located so far, but we are continuing to pursue that lead. Did you know, was there anything that was left that could give police any indication that people had been targeted? And police said no, not at this point. Well, we don't have an idea yet as to motive. And again, recognizing we're still less than 24 hours into this incident, it is something that we are certainly passionately pursuing. but it would be too early to speculate on motive at this time. But they did also say that now they have more work to do at the school

because now they have to look at surveillance video, security video at the school to see, did Jesse target these people specifically, or was this a random shooting? And so that is part of the process right now. At this point, we don't know. We do have a better sense of the timeline now. we know that the RCMP was alerted to an active shooter at the school around 120 p.m. local time on Tuesday.

But the attack actually began earlier that day at the shooter's residence, where two other victims were found dead, the mother and the stepbrother. And so what do we know about how all of this began? R-CMP say that they didn't know about the second scene until after they were called to the school shooting, that there was a family member who came upon the residence located the mother who has now been identified as 39-year-old Jennifer Strang and her 11-year-old son, who is Jesse's stepbrother. police believe that Jesse killed her mother and her stepbrother before going to the school. We know that a family member came upon the victims, found them deceased, ran to a neighbor's home. We were called because a neighbor, there was a young female at that home that went to the neighbors, and that's how we learned that they were two deceased at that residence. So the neighbor called the police.

And that is what triggered police. to even go to that residence. Because at that point, they had only heard about an active shooter at the school and didn't know there was a secondary residence. I was listening to the officer at the press conference said that that was actually a young female who would have come across her family members

and then run to the neighbors. So that must have also been very traumatic. This ascent isn't for everyone. You need grit to climb this high this often. You've got to be an underdog that always overdelivers. You've got to be 6,500 hospital staff, 1,000 doctors, all doing so much with so little. You've got to be Scarborough. Defined by our uphill battle and always striving towards new heights.

And you can help us keep climbing. Donate at lovescarbro.cairot.ca. If you're worried about feeling lonely in the afterlife, why not hire a corpse bride? In Lindsay Wong's new novel, a grad student becomes a corpse bride to pay off her family's debt. If that sounds made up, think again. Here's what Lindsay told me on my podcast, bookends. In Chinese culture, there's this idea of an arranged deaf marriage. It's called Ming Hun.

And so sometimes they'll just try to find another dead body or they'll try to find a living person. Usually a marginalized person, they'll kill them and put them in a coffin. Check out the rest of that conversation on bookends with me, Matea Roach, wherever you get your podcasts. Over the last 24 hours, a better picture of what happened at the school has also emerged. A 12-year-old named Quinn Campbell told the Globe and Mail that the attack started on the ground floor, then continued upstairs we've heard from students like Daryan Quist, who described being locked down for more than two hours behind barricaded doors. So I was just getting off my spare block, and I was in the mechanics classroom,

preparing to do some work on my car when the alarm went off. never heard before. And our principal goes throughout the halls and she's saying people close your doors, lock down, stuff like that. I didn't, I think I thought it was a secure and hold and something like that at first. So, but once things started circulating, we realized how serious it really was. So we all barricaded up the doors with some iron tables and sat in that room for around two hours. I was on my phone with my mother the entire time. And about two hours and 30 minutes passed when we went onto lockdown, our C&P got in. We're telling everyone to put their hands up,

and we were all escorted at the building and sent towards the community center. Darien describes getting these really chilling photos from classmates and trying to plan what they would do to escape. It's definitely tense. I think we were all very nervous, so we tried to keep things light

and just try and keep each other motivated and not fall into grief. But once people sent me some photos, it definitely set in what was actually happening. What kind of photos were they sending? They were disturbing, just showing blood and things like that. What else have you heard from the survivors or people in the community about what transpired in those walls? We actually heard today for the first time from RC&P about that as well.

I should mention that RC&P did say when the first officers arrived, on scene at the school two minutes after the initial 911 call about an active shooter. When officers arrived, we suspect Jesse Van Routselaer was firing in the direction of the officers. The officers did not return fire, but when they proceeded into the school, they located Jesse deceased. And police today said that she had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. police also found two guns, a long gun and a handgun. And so they're investigating to see if one or both had been used there. Darien said in this interview that he was on the phone during the entire lockdown with his mom, Shelley.

I went to my office, which has a window that looks directly onto the high school across our parking lot. And that's when I saw the fire trucks and the RCMP and the ambulance. And there was a RCMP member with his gun drawn crouching in our parking lot. And then that's when I got a hold of Darien. And I just told him to keep me on the phone. While Shelley was able to talk to her son, it sounds like a lot of parents and loved ones waited several excruciating hours to find out about their kids.

What does the community said about the RCMP's response to the shooting and the communication that they've received so far? Initially, the community seemed very frustrated, frustrated with the lack of information that was provided by the RCMP. The entire community was on a lockdown. The kids were locked down in the school for between two and two and a half hours, but the entire community was locked down for about four and a half hours before they even knew what was going on. And there seemed to be quite a bit of frustration. George Rowe, who is the pastor at the Tumblr Ridge Baptist Church, well, I understand you were at that community center as families were gathering to find out anything about their loved ones. What was it like inside that building?

Of course, after the lockdown had been lifted, I left my house to go over. And when I walked in, the sight of what I saw was devastating. many parents just waiting for the news on whether their child had survived the shooting or not. And while the medical people were doing all they could in the background with those who were injured, the RCMP and their staff were with the parents trying to explain, but could not release the information as to whether their child had survived or not. And that in itself was absolutely heartbreaking. And several hours had passed since the shooting, so you can imagine,

or at least try to imagine what the parents were going through, like, did my child survive? Or did he or she not survive? And that was very, very difficult to deal with. Today, the RCMP addressed that and basically said, we wanted to make sure that we knew all the details. We wanted to make sure that we identified the victims. We didn't want to mis-identify victims and notify family members that their loved ones were deceased when they were alive or vice versa, that their loved ones were alive when in fact they were deceased. And so they were very careful. In this case, our specific was deceased.

We had to locate next of Ken to notify them. So I would hate, notwithstanding the public interest, I would hate for someone to find out that their loved one was deceased coming from our podium or coming from the news media in advance of. being told in person. And then they also pointed out to the fact that they did have to go back and revise information. They did have to tell us today that, you know, no, no, it's not 10 people including the shooter. It's actually nine people including the shooter because we made them mistake. I'd like to correct some information that was shared yesterday and to clarify that nine people in total are deceased as a result of this incident. Initially, it was believed that one of the victims, a female with significant injuries, who was transported from the scene by our members and then

transitioned to paramedics had succumbed to her injuries. Police have since confirmed that is not the case. She is alive and it was one of the two female victims that were airlifted to hospital. Both of those victims remain in serious condition. And so they were very specific to say that they wanted to get it right and that is why it took them so long. And initially they said they were not going to release any information even today. And so today we did get information, obviously, about the suspect. We have some ages of victims, and now we're just starting to piece together exactly what those victims went through. I'm sure hanging over all of this is the RCP's response to the last and most deadly mass shooting in Canadian history in Port-a-Pic in 2020. I imagine that this is

very top of mind for them right now. Tumblr Ridge is located in the foothills of the Northern Rockies. It is this picturesque BC mining town known for its nature trails and actually dinosaur discoveries. It's this really tight-knit community of 2,400 people.

I'm sure everybody in the town knows somebody directly affected by this. I know these children. You know, I've seen them grow up. I've interacted with them. We sang stories together, we read books together. I saw them in the community. I saw them at their sporting events.

I saw them everywhere. And knowing that I can't see them anymore, that we won't see them anymore, that their family has to live with this incredible loss that I can't imagine. The community is grieving. I mean, it's a big tragedy here in Tumbur Ridge for today what's happened.

And again, we're one big family here. We might have residents, I call them a big family and we're going to come together and make sure we have ears when people want to talk and shoulders. And to me, hugs are going to be a big thing as we work through this process with our family members of the community. Well, in my estimation, there's not a word in the English language that's strong enough to describe the level of devastation that this community has experienced in the last few hours. it is tearing at the fabric, if not having torn the fabric of this community. And it's going to take a significant amount of efforts and a significant amount of courage to repair that tear. I wonder you're there if you could tell me more about the town and just how impacted the people there are by this.

I was so, you know, when I got here, I was very surprised at how close everything was because it is such a small town. There's 160 students registered at that school. You know, when we heard about students being escorted out of the school into the community center, I didn't realize it was so close. It's directly behind the school. You know, everybody knows somebody affected by this. All the people that we have encountered, it's just the feeling in this community is just heavy. It's very somber. And there's a lot of RCMP officers.

There's a lot of reporters. and I imagine that is probably contributing to the stress and the fear and the anxiety that this community is feeling right now. I imagine. The Prime Minister was quite emotional in his statement following the shooting. A very difficult day for the nation this morning. Parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers in Tumblr Ridge will wake up without someone they love. The nation mourns with you. Canada stands by you.

I want to thank and pass on a number of world leaders who've reached out directly to me in solidarity and passion. France, United Kingdom, His Majesty himself,

Norway, Finland, India, United Arab Emirates, many others. The world is with you. On the advice of the clerk of the Pliberty Council in Heritage Canada, I've asked that the flags in the Peace Tower here and across all government buildings be flown at half-mast for the next seven days. We will get through this, we will learn from this,

but right now it's a time to come together, as Canadians always do, in these situations. And in the House of Commons, there were a lot of tears shed as the opposition denounced the violence as well. No parents should ever have to fear that their child will not return home from school. No parent should ever bury their own child. In the name of the Bloch, Quebec, and in my own, I would like to offer my deepest condolences to the families of the nine children whose life was taken.

In a place where everyone knows one another, where neighbors are more like extended family, a loss like this reverberates through every home, every workplace, and every gathering. This is the kind of thing none of us want to have happen in Canada, but to have happen in a place like Tumblr Ridge so small, everyone knows everyone. Before we say goodbye here, Caroline, BCRCMP major crime has now assumed conduct of the investigation. And so what right now are the biggest questions left on?

answered at this point. I think the biggest question is why. Why did this happen? You know, and what could have been done to prevent it? Obviously, there were years of contact with police. There was mental health issues, the issues with the guns. I mean, there are so many questions in this community, um, mostly why and what could have been done and could this have been prevented. And right now, Are there plans for any vigils? I understand there's a vigil tonight at the legislature in Victoria. Also, the flags are flying at half-mast in this community. Tomorrow, when this airs, I guess, will be a day of morning here in British Columbia.

The throne speech was supposed to be delivered tomorrow, and now it is being canceled. Okay. Caroline, thank you very much for this. Take care. Take care out there. Thank you. All right. That is all for today.

I'm Jamie Poisson. Thanks so much for listening. Talk to you tomorrow. For more CBC podcasts, go to CBC.ca slash podcasts.