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Seven families — the first wave of dozens, lawyers say — are suing OpenAI, alleging that the company failed to provide Canadian authorities with information that could’ve prevented a horrific school shooting in the rural mining town of Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, despite having advance knowledge of the shooter’s disturbing conversations with the chatbot.
The lawsuits also claim that OpenAI has misled the public about the steps it says it took stop the shooter from using ChatGPT to discuss mass violence.
In early February, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar killed her mother and younger stepbrother before traveling to Tumbler Ridge’s secondary school, where she opened fire on students and teachers using a modified rifle.
Five students, all aged between 12 and 13, and a teacher were murdered. Twenty-seven more people were wounded, some severely. Several parents were forced to identify their children by their clothing because the damage wrought on the kids’ young bodies was so extreme. The shooter died by suicide.
Like millions of other people, Van Rootselaar was a ChatGPT user. In late February, a bombshell Wall Street Journal report revealed that in June 2025, months before the eventual shooting, OpenAI’s automated moderation tools flagged Van Rootselaar’s account for graphic discussions of mass violence. Human reviewers at the company were alarmed by the content, and — convinced that Van Rootselaar’s interactions with ChatGPT represented a credible imminent threat to the lives of others — they urged OpenAI executives to warn Canadian law enforcement.
After a debate that reportedly involved about a dozen staffers, OpenAI leaders chose to say nothing, and moved instead to deactivate Van Rootselaar’s account.
Filed in California, the lawsuits — which describe ChatGPT as a “co-conspirator” in the school massacre — contend that had OpenAI alerted law enforcement, local officials could’ve intervened before it was too late. OpenAI’s inaction, the lawsuits allege, was a business decision spurred by the potential future liability that reporting troubling interactions like Van Rootselaar’s would invite, and how that liability could stand to impact the company’s ongoing momentum toward an IPO.
The plaintiffs include the families of each victim murdered at the school: 13-year-old Ezekiel Schofield; 12-year-old Zoey Benoit; 12-year-old Ticaria “Tiki” Lampert; 12-year-old Abel Mwansa Jr.; 12-year-old Kylie Smith; and 39-year-old education assistant Shannda Aviugana-Durand.
Among the plaintiffs is also the family of Maya Gebala, a 12-year-old who was shot three times in the head and neck. Gebala survived, but with “catastrophic” injuries to her brain and remains in critical condition. (In March, Gebala’s family filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in Canada; this new suit supersedes the family’s initial filing.)
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