British Columbia sues OpenAI over Tumbler Ridge school shooting, nine dead
B.C. filed suit against OpenAI in California federal court, alleging ChatGPT was used to plan the February shooting that killed nine people, mostly children.
British Columbia takes OpenAI to court over Tumbler Ridge school massacre
British Columbia has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in a California federal court, alleging that the company failed to alert law enforcement after its own safety team flagged conversations in which the Tumbler Ridge shooter planned her attack using ChatGPT. Yahoo News Canada first reported the filing on Monday.
The lawsuit names OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, as defendants. The province is seeking financial damages to cover costs already incurred and expected — including a replacement school, mental health services, and other recovery expenses — as well as a court order requiring changes to how the company handles ChatGPT conversations that indicate potential violence.
Nine people were killed in the February 10 shooting at a school in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, among them five students aged 12 to 13 and an educational assistant. The shooter, Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18, first killed her mother and stepbrother at home before attacking her former school. She died by suicide at the scene.
OpenAI's safety team identified Van Rootselaar's account as early as June 2025, following conversations about gun violence. Team members recommended contacting police, but Altman and other company leadership overruled them, according to the lawsuit, which cites OpenAI whistleblowers who spoke to the Wall Street Journal after the shooting. Her account was subsequently deactivated, but Van Rootselaar created a new account and continued using the platform to plan the attack.
Altman published a letter to the community acknowledging that OpenAI had not contacted law enforcement and saying he was "deeply sorry." He committed to reforms, but the lawsuit alleges he never followed through, despite repeated attempts by British Columbia's attorney general to engage with the company.
Drew Pusateri, a spokesperson for OpenAI, described the Tumbler Ridge shooting as "an unspeakable tragedy" and said the company "remains committed to working collaboratively with government and law enforcement officials, and continuing to advance our ongoing safety work."
Following a Wall Street Journal investigation, OpenAI stated that the account had been flagged by systems designed to detect "misuses of our models in furtherance of violent activities," but that the activity did not meet the company's internal threshold for reporting to law enforcement. OpenAI has said it trains its models to refuse requests that could "meaningfully enable violence" and to notify authorities when conversations suggest "an imminent and credible risk of harm to others."
The school where the shooting occurred is in the process of being demolished.
British Columbia's lawsuit follows more than 30 civil actions already filed in California federal court by family members of victims and others affected by the attack. Those suits similarly accuse OpenAI of failing to act on an opportunity to prevent the shooting.
The case is part of a broader wave of litigation against the company in U.S. state and federal courts over claims that ChatGPT facilitated violence. In June, Florida became the first state to sue OpenAI, accusing it of misrepresenting the safety of its platform and alleging it has harmed children by supplying information to school shooters, offering guidance on self-harm, and fostering dependency among young users. OpenAI has denied those claims.
A separate lawsuit related to a mass shooting at Florida State University last year has also been filed against the company.
Source: Google News CA — Crime (EN)