At least nine people were killed and dozens more injured in shootings at a high school and residence in the northeast part of the province of British Columbia, according to Canadian police. The suspected shooter is dead, officials said.

At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Dwayne McDonald, the deputy commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s branch in British Columbia, identified the suspected shooter as 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, a resident of the small community where the school is located. 

Asked by a reporter to clarify the shooter’s gender, McDonald said: “Jesse was born as a biological male. From the information that I have, approximately six years ago began to transition to female and began identifying as female both socially and publicly.” 

The shooter was found dead from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, McDonald said. He added, “It’s important to recognize that this scene is still in its infancy while we gather evidence.”

The school shooting was first reported at 1:20 p.m. Pacific Time at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, the RCMP said in a news release.

Authorities responded to find six people dead inside the school, the RCMP said, and a seventh person died while being transported to a hospital. Two were male students, three were female students and another was an adult female educator, McDonald said.

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Police also responded to a second crime scene at a residence that is believed to have been linked to the school shooting, where two more people were found dead, the RCMP reported. McDonald said Wednesday that the deceased, an adult woman and a boy, are believed to be the mother and brother of the suspected shooter. The exact nature of their injuries was not immediately disclosed.

Two more people from the shooting at the school were airlifted to area hospitals with serious or life-threatening injuries, police said.

McDonald told reporters that two firearms, a long gun and a pistol, were recovered by officers who responded to the shooting. 

About 25 others were assessed at a local medical center for non-life-threatening injuries, the RCMP said.

RCMP Superintendent Ken Floyd previously told reporters that the shooter’s motive remained unclear. He added that police were still investigating how the victims were connected to the shooter.

The Peace River South School District initially said Tuesday that there was a “lockdown and secure and hold” at both the secondary school and the Tumbler Ridge Elementary School. It later said both schools would be closed through the rest of the week. 

The provincial government website lists Tumbler Ridge Secondary School as having 175 students from Grades 7 to 12.

Speaking with Canadian station CBC Radio on Wednesday, Tumbler Ridge Mayor Darry Krakowka described the community of about 2,700 people as “one big family” where “everybody knows everybody.” He did not elaborate on the identity of the shooter and said the RCMP was still investigating.

The office of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was 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.  

“I am devastated by today’s horrific shootings in Tumbler Ridge, B.C.,” Carney said in a statement on social media. “My prayers and deepest condolences are with the families and friends who have lost loved ones to these horrific acts of violence.”   

David Eby, premier of British Columbia, wrote: “Our hearts are in Tumbler Ridge tonight with the families of those who have lost loved ones. Government will ensure every possible support for community members in the coming days, as we all try to come to terms with this unimaginable tragedy.”

Canada’s gun violence record

Mass shootings are relatively rare in Canada, especially in school settings. It has been nearly four decades since one of the country’s most notorious massacres, when a shooter killed 14 female students and wounded 13 others at Ecole Polytechnique University in Montreal, Quebec, in 1989, according to the Canadian government. 

Canada’s deadliest attack happened more recently. In April 2020, 22 people were killed in a 12-hour shooting rampage through multiple cities in the eastern province of Nova Scotia, Canadian news outlet CBC News reported. The government passed an assault weapons ban in response. 

In January 2017, a shooting at a mosque in Quebec City, the capital of Quebec province, left six people dead and 19 others wounded, according to the office of former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

A year before that, in January 2016, a student opened fire at a remote high school in La Loche, Saskatchewan, killing two and injuring seven, after first killing two of his cousins at home, according to CBC News. 

Only a handful of significant acts of gun violence took place in Canada between 1996 and 2014, including a massacre at a wedding in Vernon, British Columbia, during which a man killed nine of his relatives; an attack in Ottawa, Ontario, in which a former employee of the city’s transit service shot and killed four of his colleagues; and separate shootings of police officers in Mayerthorpe, Alberta, and Moncton, New Brunswick, which happened roughly a decade apart.