Firearms seized from Jesse Van Rootselaar’s home under Canada’s Criminal Code were returned after someone petitioned a judge. Two years later, Van Rootselaar used a long gun and modified handgun to kill eight people at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and her family home. Police had apprehended her under the Mental Health Act multiple times, seized weapons from her residence, and documented a 2022 psychiatric hospitalization after she set fire to her bed—but Canada’s gun control system never prevented her access.
At 1:20 PM February 10, Van Rootselaar shot her mother Jennifer Jacobs, 39, and stepbrother Emmett Jacobs, 11, at their Tumbler Ridge home. She drove two kilometers to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School carrying weapons not registered in her name. She killed teacher Shannda Aviugana-Durand, 39, and five students: Abel Mwansa, 12; Ezekiel Schofield, 13; Kylie Smith, 12; Zoey Benoit, 12; and Ticaria Lampert, 12. Police arrived within two minutes. Van Rootselaar was dead from self-inflicted gunshot within 14 minutes. Twenty-seven others were injured.
Police visited the Van Rootselaar residence “on multiple occasions over the past several years” for mental health concerns, RCMP Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald confirmed. Van Rootselaar was apprehended under British Columbia’s Mental Health Act and transported to hospital for assessment. The most recent intervention came spring 2025 regarding self-harm concerns. In 2022, she set fire to a bed inside the family home and was taken to Prince George for psychiatric treatment.
Firearms were seized from the home approximately two years ago under the Criminal Code. No criminal charges were filed. “At a later point in time, the lawful owner of those firearms petitioned for those firearms to be returned and they were,” McDonald said. RCMP has not identified who petitioned. Van Rootselaar possessed only a minor’s firearms license that expired in 2024—which allows borrowing weapons but prohibits ownership. Zero firearms were registered in her name. Someone else in that household convinced a judge weapons should return despite documented psychiatric crisis.
Canada banned 2,500 assault weapon models since May 2020. The national handgun freeze took effect October 2022. Bill C-21, which received Royal Assent December 2023, created “red flag” laws allowing anyone to petition for emergency firearm prohibition based on safety concerns. Chief Firearms Officers gained authority to suspend licenses for 30 days on “reasonable grounds to suspect” ineligibility.
Eighty percent of Canadian firearm deaths are suicide. No medical opinion is required before someone with mental illness obtains a gun license. Vancouver defense lawyer Jerry Steele said it’s “very rare for somebody to get the firearms back, regardless of where they were seized. Particularly in youth cases, it’s very, very rare to see those firearms return.” BC Premier David Eby: “I have a lot of questions.”
Van Rootselaar’s TikTok featured multiple reposted videos of Nashville Covenant School shooter Audrey Hale, who killed six at a Christian elementary school March 2023. Nashville Police Department’s final report found Hale’s motive was “notoriety,” inspired by Columbine. Hale kept detailed notebooks documenting mass shooting fantasies. Both shooters were transgender, targeted schools they attended as children, and had documented mental health struggles. Van Rootselaar’s mother promoted her YouTube channel in 2021, noting content about “hunting, self-reliance, guns.” The deleted channel showed Van Rootselaar firing a Desert Eagle handgun, tactical shotgun, and semi-automatic carbine.
A 2015 BC Supreme Court ruling described Van Rootselaar’s childhood as “almost nomadic”—multiple moves between Newfoundland, Grand Cache Alberta, and Powell River over five years. Justice Anthony Saunders found mother Jennifer Jacobs engaged in “reprehensible conduct” by relocating children without required notice to father Justin Van Rootselaar, who remained estranged.
Canada’s strictest-in-North-America gun control system documented every failure: Mental Health Act apprehensions, Criminal Code firearm seizure, psychiatric hospitalization, police interventions spanning years. The system lacked one thing—authority to prevent the lawful owner from petitioning for return. Judges evaluate firearms cases cautiously because predicting future behavior proves difficult. So weapons went back to a home where Jesse Van Rootselaar could borrow them, and eight people died because documentation without enforcement authority means nothing.
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