The boy responsible for one of Canada’s deadliest mass shootings had an online lifestyle similar to that of American mass shooters, including watching videos of people being killed online.
British Columbia shootings: Suspect dies in Tumbler Ridge school shooting
Police say one gunman has died in a shooting at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in rural British Columbia, Canada.
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A Canadian teenager who killed eight people in the country’s deadliest mass shooting frequently visited the same gruesome websites that American mass shooters are known to visit in the lead up to their attacks in the United States, investigators have found.
Jesse Van Luzeler opened fire on homes and schools in northeastern British Columbia on February 10th. The 18-year-old girl, who was born male but identified as female, killed eight people and injured dozens before taking her own life. The attack in Tumbler Ridge, about 1,100 miles north of Vancouver, was one of the deadliest in America’s northern neighbor, where gun laws are strict and mass shootings are relatively rare.
An Anti-Defamation League report shared on February 12 said the teen’s online activity “indicates an interest in violence and weapons.” Anti-hate organizations have specialized teams that investigate online histories of online hate speech and mass shootings. Van Rootseller claimed admiration for other shooters online and was active on WatchPeopleDie, a forum where users share images of torture, rape, beheadings, and other violence.
The website is a known destination for school shooters in the United States, including in Wisconsin, Tennessee, and Colorado.
“It’s time for people to understand the connective tissue between child murders around the world, and that connective tissue is websites like WatchPeopleDie and other Gore platforms,” Oren Segal, ADL’s senior vice president of counterextremism and intelligence, told USA TODAY in a statement.
“These sites not only desensitize young people to violence, but create a toxic environment where extremist ideologies, including anti-Semitism, blend with graphic content, leading users to seek out more violent content and, in some cases, to commit violence themselves. This is a vicious cycle that puts impressionable young people at serious risk.”
The ADL report provides the most detailed look yet at Van Roetzelaar’s online life in the lead up to the shooting.
What did she post online?
ADL investigators found that the boy had an “extensive digital footprint” on platforms including YouTube, Reddit and the WatchPeopleDie (WPD) site.
Regardless of platform, she displayed “an interest in violence and weapons, along with an interest in past mass shooters,” the researchers said.
Van Rootselaar’s own posts on the WPD Gore site included photos of multiple firearms and a video of her firing the gun.
Her first comment on the forum was in response to a thread dedicated to footage of mass shootings. “Thank you for this post,” she wrote.
In a similar thread, she wrote: “I love these first-person type videos. It’s always exciting when a shooter records his actions.”
Who else was active on this site?
The boy’s activity on the violence-focused website included visiting the profile of another mass shooter who was previously active on the website, the ADL said. Natalie Rapnow killed two students and injured six others at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin in December 2024. The 15-year-old boy died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Mr. Van Rootseller and Mr. Lupnow are not the only mass shooters known to be active on the website.
Solomon Henderson, a 17-year-old who killed a student and injured another at Antioch High School in Tennessee in January 2025 before committing suicide, was a known user.
Henderson and Rapnow followed each other on the forum and each began their attacks about a year and a half after joining the website. It is unknown how long Van Rootseller has been active.
One known user is Desmond Holley, the 16-year-old who seriously injured two students at Evergreen High School in suburban Denver in September 2025. Holly also died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“I don’t think it’s a big deal,” the gunman said of the website.
According to online comments, Van Loetzeler said she had thought about stopping access to violent websites and expected it to have some effect on her, but there were times when she found it difficult to leave.
“I used to try to stay away from watching these kinds of shows because they were so addicting and a huge waste of time,” she wrote. Elsewhere, she called the content “addictive,” according to the ADL.
“It’s probably naive to say ‘it doesn’t affect me,'” she said in another post. But “I feel like it’s not a big deal.”
