Tumbler Ridge Families Sue OpenAI in California Over Shooter Warnings

Families of the eight people killed in the Tumbler Ridge, B.C., mass shooting are suing OpenAI in a California federal court, claiming the company had clear warning the attack was coming, and chose to do nothing.

Seven lawsuits were filed Wednesday in the Northern District of California by Vancouver-based Rice Parsons Leoni & Elliott, alongside Chicago firm Edelson PC. The allegations are stark: eight months before the February 10 shooting, OpenAI had already flagged and banned 18-year-old shooter Jesse Van Rootselaar’s ChatGPT account for “disturbing content” linked to planning violent acts. Twelve of the company’s own employees reportedly pushed for Canadian authorities to be notified. Nobody made the call. Van Rootselaar had also opened a second ChatGPT account, which was still active at the time of the shooting.

Five of the victims were 12-year-old students at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School: Ezekiel Schofield, Abel Mwansa Jr., Kylie Smith, Ticaria Lampert, and Zoey Benoit. Teacher Shannda Aviugana-Durand, 39, was killed in front of her daughter, who was a student in her class. Van Rootselaar’s mother and half-brother were also among the dead.
Maya Gebala, also 12, was shot three times at close range and remains at BC Children’s Hospital.

John Rice, lead Canadian counsel for the families, told iPhone in Canada in a statement the attack didn’t have to happen. “All Canadians are sickened and horrified by the Tumbler Ridge Mass Shooting. We cherish our schools as places of safety, learning, sports, nurturing and friendship. Based on what we understand the Shooter to have discussed with ChatGPT, this murderous rampage was specific, predictable, and preventable – and OpenAI had the chance to stop it. What the families of those murdered have lost and what these kids and teachers witnessed is unacceptable. It is the type of point-blank gun murder rarely seen anywhere, even in a theatre of war.” he said.

The families are filing in California rather than Canada for a few reasons. Under B.C. law, the estates of murdered children can’t sue for damages, and pain-and-suffering awards are capped at around $470,000 CAD. The largest punitive award in Canadian history is just $1.5 million. In California, where OpenAI is headquartered, those limits don’t apply. The families are seeking what the firm calls “landmark damage awards.”

OpenAI issued a statement Tuesday saying it has a “zero-tolerance policy” for anyone using its tools to plan violence, and that it’s strengthened its systems since the shooting. Last week, CEO Sam Altman issued a public apology to the Tumbler Ridge community.

Maya’s mother, Cia Edmonds, wasn’t buying it. In a statement shared with iPhone in Canada, she wrote directly to Altman: “A loss that a simple phone call to the RCMP could have prevented… Did you use ChatGPT to draft your ‘apology’, Sam? It is empty, soulless, and lacks any human warmth. Only a machine could have put those words together and called it an apology.” She went further: “You played a game of chance with our community where we were the only people who could ever lose. Tumbler Ridge sees your ‘apology’, Sam. We do not accept it.”