US charges Washington resident over deadly Canadian school shooting

U.S. prosecutors charged a Washington state resident Tuesday with helping an 18-year-old carry out a shooting in British Columbia that killed eight people, including five students and a teacher.

James Cody Bryant, 30, was arrested and charged with conspiracy to murder persons in a foreign country over the Feb. 10 attack in Tumbler Ridge. Prosecutors say Bryant gave the shooter, Jesse Van Rootselaar, money and advice and offered to help livestream the violence. The charge carries a possible life sentence.

Van Rootselaar killed her mother and an 11-year-old boy at their home before going to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, where she killed five students and a teacher. Van Rootselaar died by suicide. NBC News reported that the students killed were three 12-year-old girls and two boys, ages 12 and 13. Al Jazeera reported that 27 other people were injured; NBC News said two children who were shot suffered serious injuries.

Bryant and Van Rootselaar met about three years before the shooting on the video-chat service Omegle and stayed in contact through Discord, according to the FBI. There is no indication they met in person, said W. Mike Herrington, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Seattle office. Al Jazeera reported that their conversations about the attack began six months before the shooting.

Acting U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd said Bryant had repeated contact with Van Rootselaar and could have alerted police. “Instead, he encouraged and offered assistance to a murderer,” Floyd said. The Justice Department said Bryant tried several times to talk Van Rootselaar out of the attack or get her to reconsider, but did not alert law enforcement.

After Van Rootselaar killed her mother and the boy, she had trouble starting her car. Floyd said Bryant advised her on how to get it running so she could reach the school. Al Jazeera reported that prosecutors also accused Bryant of paying for items including shoes for the attack.

The shooting was livestreamed on Twitch for about 20 seconds before the stream stopped, officials said. According to the criminal complaint cited by NBC News, Twitch said an account appearing to belong to Bryant was the only one that viewed it. Herrington said Van Rootselaar wanted the attack to reach a large audience.

Bryant was in custody Tuesday. NBC News reported that online federal court records did not list an attorney for Bryant that afternoon.

Separately, Al Jazeera reported that British Columbia sued OpenAI in September, alleging its ChatGPT platform played a role in the shooting. The province said OpenAI had flagged Van Rootselaar’s statements about gun violence and suspended her account without notifying law enforcement. OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman later said he was “deeply sorry” the company had not contacted police. The lawsuit seeks compensation for response and recovery costs and changes to OpenAI’s handling of threats.