‘ANOTHER TRANS SHOOTER’: Police confirm man who killed 6 at school identified as woman
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have identified the 18-year-old man who shot and killed six people at a school in British Columbia, critically injuring two, and wounding about 25 others. He identified as a woman, authorities have confirmed.
Jesse Van Rootselaar first killed his mother, 39, and his 11-year-old stepbrother at their family home in the remote community of Tumbler Ridge, before targeting Tumbler Ridge Secondary School Tuesday.
At the school, he shot and killed a 39-year-old female teacher, three 12-year-old female students, and two male students, aged 12 and 13. As police arrived, he shot at them, but officers found the shooter dead from an apparent suicide.
“We do believe the suspect acted alone … it would be too early to speculate on motive,” Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald said in a press conference Wednesday.
McDonald said Van Rootselaar was born male but began to identify as female six years ago, Reuters reported.
“Yes, that is the information that we have,” RCMP Sergeant Vanessa Munn told The Daily Signal.
The shooting ranks among the deadliest in Canadian history.
Prime Minister Mark Carney postponed his trip to Europe and ordered flags on government buildings to be flown at half-mast for the next seven days.
“Right now, it’s a time to come together, as Canadians always do in these situations, these terrible situations, to support each other, to mourn together and to grow together,” he said.
In April 2020, a 51-year-old man disguised in a police uniform killed 22 people in Nova Scotia in multiple shootings and set fire to homes, before police killed him.
Transgender-Motivated Violence and Threats
While Van Rootselaar’s motive remains unclear, this shooting comes after a string of violence and threats from perpetrators who identified as transgender or supported transgenderism.
In September, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox confirmed reports that 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, who has been charged with Charlie Kirk’s murder, was living with a boyfriend who identifies as transgender. Robinson reportedly confessed to his boyfriend that he committed the murder.
Authorities reportedly confirmed that 23-year-old Robin Westman, a male born Robert Westman, opened fire at Annunciation Church in Minneapolis in August, killing two children and injuring 17 others.
Audrey Elizabeth Hale, 28, reportedly identified as male. She shot and killed three children and three adults on March 27, 2023, at The Covenant School, a Presbyterian school in Nashville, Tennessee. Police fatally shot her during the attack.
According to a court document obtained by The Daily Signal, the man who tried to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in June 2022 identifies as a woman. Nicholas Roske, who was 29 when he pleaded guilty in April, identifies as Sophie Roske in a court document.
On May 7, 2019, then-16-year-old Maya “Alec” McKinney and her 19-year-old fellow student, Devon Erickson, opened fire at STEM School Highlands Ranch in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, killing one and injuring eight. Both have been sentenced to life in prison. McKinney, a female, identifies as male.
In June 2024, a judge sentenced Jason Lee Willie, a man who identifies as a woman and goes by Alexia, to one year in prison after he pleaded guilty to threatening to injure people across state lines. Willie, a resident of Nashville, Illinois, confessed to threatening to rape girls in girls’ restrooms, carry out mass shootings at schools, and bomb churches.
[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]