OTTAWA--Canadian police on Wednesday identified the person who carried out a deadly school shooting as an 18-year-old woman with mental health issues but did not give a motive for one of the worst mass killings in Canada's history.
The killer, who police named as Jesse Van Rootselaar, died by suicide after the shooting on Tuesday in Tumbler Ridge, a remote community of 2,400 people in the Pacific province of British Columbia. Police revised the death toll down to nine, including Van Rootselaar, from the initially reported 10.
On more than one occasion, Van Rootselaar had been apprehended under the provincial Mental Health Act for an assessment, said Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald, commander of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in British Columbia. She once attended the school but dropped out four years ago.
"Police had attended that (family) residence on multiple occasions over the past several years, dealing with concerns of mental health with respect to our suspect," McDonald said.
Unlike the United States, school shootings are almost unheard of in Canada, and federal politicians initially struggled to maintain their composure. "We will get through this. We will learn from this," a visibly upset Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters.
Carney, who at one point looked close to tears, postponed a trip to Europe and ordered flags on all government buildings be flown at half-mast for the next seven days.Hours later, legislators in the House of Commons observed a moment of silence and listened as a somber Carney said the killings had left the country in shock and mourning.
"It is a town of miners, teachers, construction workers - families who have built their lives there, people who have always shown up for each other there ... Tumbler Ridge represents the very best of Canada," he said.
McDonald said Van Rootselaar, who was born male but began to identify as a female six years ago, had first killed her mother, 39, and 11-year-old stepbrother at the family home.
She then went to the school, where she shot a 39-year-old woman teacher as well as three 12-year-old female students and two male students, one aged 12 and one aged 13. Police recovered a long gun and a modified handgun.Two severely injured victims remain in hospital.
"We do believe the suspect acted alone ... it would be too early to speculate on motive," McDonald told a press conference, saying police did not have information to suggest that anyone had been specifically targeted.
