Canada PM visits memorial for mass shooting victims as new details emerge

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and his wife Diana Fox Carney carry flowers as they arrive to visit a makeshift memorial for the victims of a deadly mass shooting at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School. Photo / Christinne Muschi, AFP

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney laid a bouquet at a makeshift memorial on Saturday as he visited the grief-stricken town of Tumbler Ridge, where a shooter killed eight people.

Carney arrived in the remote British Columbia mining town as part of a trip with the heads of opposition parties, a show of national solidarity after one of the deadliest outbursts of violence in Canadian history.

In the days since Tuesday’s killings at the Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, more information has emerged about the victims and the shooter, an 18-year-old transgender woman named Jesse Van Rootselaar.

Van Rootselaar was “hunting” and “there was no specific targeting of any individuals”, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.

An RCMP officer remained stationed outside Van Rootselaar’s home on Friday.

The modest brown house on a quiet, unassuming street was cordoned off with police tape. Two overturned bicycles rested against the snow in the front yard.

Van Rootselaar killed her 39-year-old mother and 11-year-old stepbrother in the house before heading to the school, where she shot dead six more people – five students and a teacher – then killed herself.

The shooter’s estranged father, Justin Van Rootselaar, sent a statement to the public broadcaster CBC offering condolences for a “senseless and unforgivable act of violence”.

“As the biological father of the individual responsible, I carry a sorrow that is difficult to put into words,” the statement said, according to the CBC.

Officers released a photo of the shooter, who was known to have mental health issues. She is shown wearing a hoodie with an expressionless face.

‘Unheard-of cruelty’

Carney is expected to speak on Saturday at a vigil for the victims outside the town hall in Tumbler Ridge, 1180km north of Vancouver.

The town was quiet early in the day and residents have voiced weariness over the influx of media attention after the tragedy.

A sign ordering media to stay out was taped at the entrance of the community centre on Friday.

But inside the centre the day before there were hints of life inching back towards normal, including an ice rink packed with children playing hockey or working on their skating.

The mother of one victim, Sarah Lampert, addressed the media at the centre and said she wanted to speak for 12-year-old daughter Ticaria, who had “a beautiful, strong voice that was silenced”.

“She is forever my baby, because that’s what she was. She was a baby,” Lampert said, fighting back tears as she addressed a room full of cameras.

Also killed at the school was 12-year-old Zoey Benoit.

“She was so resilient, vibrant, smart, caring and the strongest little girl you could meet,” a statement from her family said.

Peter Schofield’s 13-year-old grandson Ezekiel was another of the murdered students.

“Everything feels so surreal. The tears just keep flowing,” he posted on Facebook.

Residents have repeatedly stressed the community’s closeness in the days after the shootings, saying tight relationships in the town of 2400 would help people get through the nightmare.

“This will not break us,” pastor George Rowe said. “I think we’re going to be okay.”

Carney made an emotional address to Parliament after the shootings, saying “these children and their teachers bore witness to unheard-of cruelty”.

He described Tumbler Ridge as a town of miners, teachers and construction workers who represent “the very best of Canada: resilient, compassionate and strong”.

The Prime Minister had been scheduled to attend the Munich Security Conference to discuss transatlantic defence with allies, but cancelled his plans after the shooting.

– Agence France-Presse