Jesse Van Rootselaar had begun transitioning at the age of 12 and publicly identified as female.
The transgender teenager responsible for Canada’s worst school shooting in nearly 40 years struggled with her physical appearance and was fixated with guns and drugs.
Jesse Van Rootselaar, an 18-year-old from the remote town of Tumbler Ridge who was born a male, wrote online about her 6ft (1.82m) frame and her desire to be a “petite” woman.
She shot dead her mother, Jennifer Strang, and her 11-year-old stepbrother on Tuesday afternoon (local time) before walking to her former school 10 minutes away and opening fire on pupils and staff, killing eight before taking her own life.
Police initially described the shooter as a “gunperson” and a “female in a dress”. They later revealed that Van Rootselaar had begun transitioning at the age of 12 and publicly identified as female.
Police have not revealed a motive, but posts retrieved by the Telegraph from the shooter’s deleted social media accounts reveal a troubled teenager with mental health issues and difficulties transitioning to become a woman.
Van Rootselaar, who described herself as “mtf” in posts (shorthand for male-to-female), recorded a video of herself in October 2023 firing a high-powered Desert Eagle handgun at a shooting range and shared her footage on a forum for other transgender people interested in guns.
In other posts sent to transgender communities, she asked “do I have a good build type for HRT [hormone replacement therapy]”?
“Any advice is appreciated, should I put on weight or anything? Work out?”
In another post dated March 31, 2020, she wrote in a message to a transgender group: “I’m trans MtF, I’m pre-HRT 15yo, I’m super skinny, so that sometimes makes me feel kinda good!”
“But I’m Pre-HRT and my expectations are minimal for chest growth, and I’m 6ft tall! Why can’t I be petit an [sic] smol [small]?”
Police have said it was “too early to say” whether there was any correlation between Van Rootselaar identifying as transgender and the shooting, and admitted that the motive for the killings may never be known.
Court records reveal how Van Rootselaar, a school dropout, and her five siblings had led a “nomadic lifestyle” that constantly uprooted them between Newfoundland and Powell River.
“It can hardly be the case that the children are tied in any meaningful sense to that one location,” wrote Justice Anthony Saunders in a ruling ordering his mother to give her children telephone access to their father.
Police said there was a history of officers attending the shooter’s home for mental health-related call-outs, some of which concerned guns.
There was no evidence to suggest she was bullied at school for being transgender, police said.
Dwayne McDonald, Deputy Commissioner for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said officers had been in contact with Van Rootselaar last year and that Van Rootselaar’s gun licence had expired in 2024 and had no firearms registered.
On more than one occasion, Van Rootselaar was taken into custody for assessment under the mental health act, police said.
Two years ago, firearms were seized from the home, but the lawful owner, whom the police did not identify, got them back after petitioning to have them returned.
Van Rootselaar, the eldest of five siblings, is believed to have had ready access to an arsenal of guns from a young age.
Her mother shared a photograph in August 2024 of a gun cabinet housing a collection of hunting rifles and rounds of ammunition.
“Think it’s time to take them out for some target practice,” read the photograph’s caption.
Strang promoted her “son’s” account on her official Facebook page in July 2021.
She wrote: “Check out my oldest son Jesse Strang [sic] YouTube channel. He posts about hunting, self-reliance, guns and stuff he likes to do ... he doesn’t go on much other social media so this is his way of sharing his life.”
Strang also shared her support for transgender issues.
In an Instagram post on July 2024, she shared an image of a trans-inclusive pride flag with the message “good people don’t spend their time harassing marginalised communities”.
A YouTube account, run by Van Rootselaar under the name of JessJessUWU, features a female cartoon character next to a rifle with the blue, white and pink colours of the transgender flag in the background.
The videos included footage of Van Rootselaar carrying out target practice with a tactical 12-gauge shotgun and firing a semi-automatic carbine at targets, an archived copy of the account showed.
Van Rootselaar also described using drugs on social media, claiming that she tried to burn her house down after using psychedelic mushrooms, and regularly took DMT – another powerful hallucinogenic drug.
On October 28, 2023, she wrote: “I tried shrooms once, it was a small unmeasured dose and it was chill.
“The second time I tried it I took 3 grams of Blue Meanie [a hallucinogenic mushroom] ground up into some peanut butter and had a complete break from reality and did a lot of irrational things, I felt like I was dreaming. Many consequences ensued.”
On Wednesday evening, a candlelit vigil was held in the town of 2400 residents at the base of the Rocky Mountains.
Mark Carney, Canada’s Prime Minister, who has a trans daughter, described the shooting as “horrific” and said his “prayers and deepest condolences” were with the families and friends of the victims.
“I join Canadians in grieving with those whose lives have been changed irreversibly today,” he added in a statement.
Canada is considered to have some of the most protective laws for transgender people, but some provinces have moved to ban transgender competitors from women’s sports in recent years.
Darryl Krakowka, the mayor of Tumbler Ridge, said he broke down at hearing the news, and compared the community of around 2400 people with a “big family”, adding: “I probably know every one of the victims.”
Van Rootselaar, armed with a modified handgun and a rifle or shotgun, shot dead three 12-year-old girls and two boys, aged 12 and 13, and a 39-year-old female teacher inside the school at approximately 1.20pm.
She then took her own life minutes before officers arrived at the scene.
Two more people, including Maya Gebala, a 12-year-old girl who sustained two bullet wounds to her neck and head after locking the library door to save her classmates, are being treated for life-threatening injuries.
Twenty-five others from the school of 175 students also sustained minor injuries.
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