A previous version of this story reported that there were nine victims killed in the shootings. Police corrected that number to eight on Feb. 11, saying they mistakenly thought a woman air-lifted to a hospital had died.
Two shootings at a school and a home left at least eight people dead and dozens others wounded in northeastern British Columbia on Tuesday, Feb. 10, in what a Canadian official described as one of the worst mass shootings in the nation’s history.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police got a report of an active shooting at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School at about 1:20 p.m. local time. Officers responded to the scene and found dozens of victims and the suspected shooter, who was found dead with what appeared to be a self‑inflicted gunshot wound.
Five victims were dead inside the high school while two others were airlifted to the hospital with life‑threatening injuries. Another two dozen people had minor injuries.
As part of the investigation, police said that two people were found dead at a home and that it’s believed to be linked to the school shooting.
“It’s hard to know what to say on a night like tonight,” British Columbia Premier David Eby said at a news conference. “I can say for myself and I’m sure for many British Columbians, many Canadians, it makes us think about our kids’ safety when they’re going to school … Events like this give us pause about that safety.”
During the attack, a police alert identified the suspect as a “female in a dress with brown hair.” In a news conference later in the day, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superintendent Ken Floyd said that the shooter was the suspect described in the alert.
Authorities declined to release further details about the suspect.
British Columbia’s Public Safety Minister Nina Krieger called the Tumbler Ridge tragedy “one of the worst mass shootings in the province’s and country’s history.”
“This is a devastating day for a close-knit community, and the loss being felt is profound,” she said. “As a mother, I’m holding the families who lost loved ones close in my heart, as well as the many of those injured. For their families, the nightmare has not yet ended.”
Both Eby and Krieger credited the quick response by first responders for preventing further loss of life, saying that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrived within two minutes.
“What was already quite a devastating tragedy was prevented from being significantly worse,” Eby said. “And as a police officer attending a shooting scene like that, you’re putting yourself at risk to protect the lives of other people, and it’s heroic work, and I am very grateful that the police responded so quickly and so fearlessly and executed their training to protect as many people as possible at the school.”
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement that he was “devastated by today’s horrific shootings.”
“I join Canadians in grieving with those whose lives have been changed irreversibly today, and in gratitude for the courage and selflessness of the first responders who risked their lives for their fellow citizens,” he said. “Our ability to come together in crisis is the best of our country − our empathy, our unity and our compassion for each other.”
Tumbler Ridge is a remote municipality with a population of around 2,400 people located in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in northern British Columbia, about 720 miles northeast of Vancouver.
The school district announced that Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and Tumbler Ridge Elementary School will be closed for the rest of the week “due to the tragic events.”
The attack on the village of Tumbler Ridge is among the worst shootings in the history of Canada, where such tragedies are relatively rare.
The worst mass shooting in the nation’s history was in 2020, when 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman shot and killed 22 people in a 13-hour rampage at multiple locations in Nova Scotia before being killed by police.
The worst school shooting in Canada’s history was in 1989, when 25-year-old Marc Lepine carried out an anti-feminist attack and fatally shot 14 women and wounded another 10 women and four men before he killed himself.
Among other gun tragedies in the nation was the 2017 attack on a mosque by 27-year-old Alexandre Bissonnette, who killed six and wounded five. He later pleaded guilty to the attack and is serving life in prison.
In 2014, 53-year-old Phu Lam killed eight members of his friends and family, including his wife and her 8-year-old son and 3-year-old niece, before killing himself in Edmonton, Alberta. In 1996, 30-year-old Mark Vijay Chahal fatally shot his ex-wife and eight of her family members before killing himself in Vernon, British Columbia.
Contributing: Reuters
This story was updated to add a map of Tumbler Ridge Secondary School.