The province alleges OpenAI's safety team flagged the shooter's violent ChatGPT conversations months before the attack but never contacted police.
British Columbia has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in California, claiming the AI company had clear warning signs of a planned mass shooting months before it happened and chose not to alert law enforcement.
The suit centers on the Tumbler Ridge Secondary School shooting of February 10, 2026, which killed eight people, six of them children. The province argues that OpenAI’s own internal safety team flagged the shooter’s account for discussions of gun violence back in June 2025, nearly eight months before the attack, and even recommended contacting law enforcement. That recommendation was reportedly ignored.
What OpenAI knew and when it knew it #
The shooter, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, had been engaging with ChatGPT in conversations that contained enough red flags to trigger an internal review at OpenAI. The company’s safety team identified gun violence-related scenarios in the chat logs and escalated the matter internally.
According to the province’s allegations, the recommendation that came out of that review was straightforward: contact law enforcement. OpenAI didn’t follow through.
The reason, per the lawsuit’s claims, was business. OpenAI reportedly declined to make the referral to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police due to concerns about the potential impact on its commercial prospects and its anticipated IPO.
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British Columbia Attorney General Niki Sharma has been vocal about the province’s position. The concerning conversations triggered an internal review at OpenAI, she stated, but they were never reported to the RCMP. The province announced it was exploring legal action back in July 2026 and retained counsel before formally filing the suit on September 21, 2026.
A growing wave of litigation #
British Columbia’s lawsuit is far from the only legal challenge OpenAI faces over the Tumbler Ridge shooting. Families of victims began filing civil suits in California federal court as early as April 2026, starting with seven cases.
That number has since ballooned to 37 separate lawsuits. The plaintiffs are alleging negligence and product liability, among other claims. Some of these suits seek over $1 billion in damages and demand structural changes to OpenAI’s safety protocols.
OpenAI has moved to dismiss many of the private lawsuits, arguing that the proper jurisdiction for these cases is British Columbia, not California.
OpenAI has acknowledged the tragedy, issued a public apology, and pledged to strengthen its safety protocols. But pledges and apologies land differently when the core allegation is that the company’s existing safety protocols actually worked, identified a genuine threat, and were then overridden by commercial considerations.
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