OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has revealed that it considered alerting Canadian police last year about the activities of Jesse Van Rootselaar, who later committed one of the country's worst school shootings. The tech firm flagged the suspect's account in June 2025 for 'furtherance of violent activities' but decided not to refer the case to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) at that time.
OpenAI stated that the threshold for referring a user to law enforcement is an imminent and credible risk of serious physical harm. In this instance, the company determined that the account activity did not meet that threshold, as it did not identify credible or imminent planning. The account was banned for violating OpenAI's usage policy.
The 18-year-old Van Rootselaar killed eight people in Tumbler Ridge, a remote town in British Columbia, last week before dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The RCMP reported that the suspect first killed her mother and stepbrother at the family home before attacking the nearby school. Victims included a 39-year-old teaching assistant and five students aged 12 to 13.
After learning of the shooting, OpenAI proactively reached out to the RCMP with information on the individual and their use of ChatGPT. An OpenAI spokesperson expressed condolences and confirmed cooperation with the investigation. The attack is Canada's deadliest since 2020, when a gunman in Nova Scotia killed 13 people.
