What we know about the victims in the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting

By Canadian Press on February 12, 2026.

TUMBLER RIDGE — Details are beginning to emerge about the people killed and injured in the mass shooting at a high school and a home in Tumbler Ridge, B.C. Here’s what is known so far:

Kylie Smith, 12

Multiple media reports have identified Kylie as among the dead. A GoFundMe campaign posted by the girl’s aunt had raised more than $20,000 as of Thursday morning. “We are completely devastated and have no words as we try to process the magnitude of the situation,” her aunt posted. “Their world, our world, has crumbled.”

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Abel Mwansa Jr., 12

Multiple media reports have identified Abel as among the dead. His mother posted a video of him on Facebook. “My son, I treasured the moment I spent with you, you were a great son still remains a great one to me,” said the post. “This cut is the deepest.”

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Maya Gebala, 12

Maya’s mother posted on Facebook that her daughter was among the injured. A GoFundMe campaign started by a cousin had raised more than $250,000 as of Thursday morning. “Today started as any other,” a post on the fundraising campaign reads. “Now, however, my 12 year old daughter is fighting for her life while they try to repair the damage from a gun shot wound to the head. And one to the neck.” In another post Wednesday on Facebook, she said, “We were warned that the damage to her brain was too much for her to endure, and she wouldn’t make the night.”

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Paige Hoekstra

The Toronto Star identified Paige as among the injured. A GoFundMe campaigned posted by her brother had raised more than $25,000 as of Thursday morning. He says she was airlifted to hospital in Vancouver where she had surgery. “Yesterday everything changed for our family,” the post says. Watching someone you love go through something like this is something you can’t really prepare for. We’re scared, we’re hoping, and we’re just taking it one moment at a time.”

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Jennifer Strang

Multiple media reports identify Strang as the 39-year-old mother of the shooter, Jesse Van Rootselaar. Police say Van Rootselaar killed her mother and 11-year-old stepbrother before continuing the massacre at the school. The Globe and Mail quotes a cousin as saying Strang was raised in Newfoundland.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 12, 2026.

The Canadian Press

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