Newly unsealed court documents have revealed fresh details about how the RCMP responded to the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, that claimed the lives of eight victims in early February. The records were obtained by CBC News and a group of other media outlets that fought in court to gain access to them.
The documents are search warrants, production orders and sealing orders, and they give a fuller look at how the tragedy unfolded on February 10 in the tiny, tight-knit mountain town, this time from the perspective of law enforcement. They set out a timeline of how police found the bodies of the eight victims and of the shooter, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, who was also found dead.
Much of the material, however, is heavily redacted. An expert who reviewed the records said the redactions were an RCMP choice rather than a necessity or a legal requirement to withhold the information, and argued that keeping so much of it from the public should be a matter of concern.
The redaction he was most concerned about involved the details of the firearms used. He pointed to concerns that had been raised about whether police action or inaction might have interfered with the shooter's ability to follow through with the attack at the school.
The documents also shed more light on the 911 calls that poured in that morning. The first was a report of an SUV driving erratically away from the shooter's house, followed by multiple calls of shots fired inside the school.
From there, the records trace officers arriving at the scene, hearing gunshots, going into the school, finding victims and ultimately the shooter dead. According to the documents, police had to hold their position while being shot at. The records also note that the shooter went by multiple different last names, and that some officers believed for a time there may have been two shooters.
Even with the new disclosures, much remains uncertain, as many pages are blacked out entirely. British Columbia has announced a coroner's inquest into the shootings that will examine issues such as the shooter's mental health, access to weapons and the role artificial intelligence may have played. The section on the shooter's social media accounts is redacted in full, and every timestamp in the police response timeline is blacked out, leaving unknown how long passed between officers reaching the school and reaching the shooter.