By The Canadian Press

RCMP name victims of Tumbler Ridge shootings to ‘honour the lives lost’

Feb 12, 2026 | 1:00 AM

TUMBLER RIDGE — The names and photos of children and adults shot to death in a small B.C. town were released Thursday in a sombre visual rollcall of chubby cheeks, shy smiles and braces.

The 2,700 residents of Tumbler Ridge, meanwhile, began coping not only with unimaginable grief but also empathy and rage in a community they now share with the kin of the killer.

Girls Kylie Smith, Zoey Benoit, Ticaria Lampert — all age 12 — and boys Abel Mwansa Jr., also 12, and Ezekiel Schofield, 13, were killed Tuesday afternoon in Tumbler Ridge Secondary School by 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar.

Shannda Aviugana-Durand, 39, an education assistant at the school, was also killed by Van Rootselaar, who took her own life after police moved in to stop the carnage.

Police say the shootings were random, with victims found in a stairwell and the library.

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One person shot outside Nanaimo's Woodgrove Centre

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What we know about the victims in the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting

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Nanaimo senior taken to hospital after being hit and dragged by pickup truck

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Police also confirmed that before heading to the school that day, Van Rootselaar killed her mother 39-year-old Jennifer Jacobs, and her 11-year-old stepbrother Emmett Jacobs in the family home.

Two more shooting victims were airlifted out from the school in serious condition.

The mother of a 12-year-old Maya Gebala said Thursday there is hope as the girl fights for her life in hospital in Vancouver with bullet wounds in her head and neck.

“She’s moved,” Cia Edmonds said in a social media post about her daughter, Maya Gebala. “It’s stimulus, a kick, a hand move, but it’s something!

“It’s truly something new in almost 48 hours. Keep up the positive vibes.”

The sister to the other injured student, 19-year-old Paige Hoekstra, said Hoekstra was shot once in the chest and is out of surgery.

“She is officially out of danger and in recovery,” reads the Facebook post from Leann Fletcher. Fletcher also included a message from Paige that read, “I want to tell everyone that I am OK and I am recovering.”

Glimpses of Van Rootselaar’s life were also emerging.

Online platform Roblox said in a statement it had removed a game created by Van Rootselaar, which digital news company 404 Media said allowed players to massacre people in a shopping mall.

“We have removed the user account connected to this horrifying incident as well as any content associated with the suspect. We are committed to fully supporting law enforcement in their investigation,” a Roblox spokesperson said.

Jacob’s Facebook page says she hailed from the small town of Lawn on the southern tip of Newfoundland and Labrador, separated from Van Rootselaar’s father in 2015, and sought to move her children from B.C. back to her home province.

Instead, a judge ruled the children were to be returned to B.C., citing in his decision that they had led an “almost nomadic life.”

Tumbler Ridge, and Canada, have seen expressions of support arrive from leaders around the world, from as far away as war-torn Ukraine and Australia.

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced he will head to Tumbler Ridge to attend a vigil on Friday. His office says Carney was invited by town Mayor Darryl Krakowka and that he has invited all other federal party leaders to join him.

On Thursday, an official day of mourning in B.C., residents walked through chill winds to continue to lay flowers at a makeshift memorial in the town centre.

Tracy Krauss, a local pastor, says she knows the families — all the families — involved and says the pain is made worse in Tumbler Ridge because death was brought on by one of their own. On Wednesday, she said, she brought food to the Jesse Van Rootselaar’s grandma.

“It’s not like this big bad devil came to town,” Krauss said in an interview.

The shooter’s family are part of the community.

“There are other siblings,” she said. “There are grandparents, and aunties and uncles. They’re hurting.

“They are as devasted as anyone because they lost three family members, but they’re also being vilified, you know.”

Krauss says she was at the community centre Tuesday as parents awaited on that awful afternoon to be reunited with their children.

One by one the kids arrived, the families went home, leaving only a tiny knot of anxious people waiting for children they finally learned were not coming. Eventually, police arrived, took the parents aside one by one and delivered the news. The police had a process, and they had to follow it, Krauss said. But that didn’t make it easier.

“That was hard, really hard,” she said. “In many ways, it felt really cruel, to be honest.”

Across multiple internet platform, friends and families posted pictures and memories and family fundraising campaigns.

Kylie Smith was described by her parents as a girl who loved anime and art and dreamt of going to school in Toronto.

“She had the biggest heart and was such a gentle, loving, caring girl, who lit up the way everywhere she went. She couldn’t hurt a fly,” Kylie’s mom, Desirae Pisarski, posted on Facebook.

A GoFundMe organizer for Ticaria Lampert says she leaves behind seven siblings and her mother Sarah.

The father of Abel Mwansa Jr. wrote that he’ll never forget his son’s radiant smile, but said, “I was broken when I saw you packed in that black bag, lifeless and zipped up like those we see in movies.”

Ezekiel Schofield was remembered by his grandfather Peter Schofield. “Everything feels so surreal. The tears just keep flowing,” he wrote.

Mounties continue to investigate.

On Thursday, investigators wearing white coveralls, worn to prevent an officer from contaminating a crime scene, were outside the home where Jennifer and Emmett Jacobs died.

Police have said that they paid multiple visits to Van Rootselaar’s home on mental health concerns and at one time to seize weapons, which were later returned.

A long gun and a modified handgun were located in the school after the shooting and Mounties say they are working to determined where they came from, who owned them and whether they were legal.

Van Rootselaar, they said, was assigned male at birth but began to transition six years ago. Four years ago, she dropped out of school.

A frind of Jennifer Jacobs’ friend, in a social media post, called her a caring parent.

“I know you did your very best despite of everything,” wrote Rhen-Rhen Reyes Ceredon.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 12, 2026.

The Canadian Press