British Columbia Premier David Eby says police are pursuing orders regarding the preservation of potential evidence related to the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge held by digital services companies, including social media platforms and AI companies.
The premier’s statement comes following a report in the Wall Street Journal that employees with the artificial intelligence company OpenAI considered alerting authorities about the shooter’s worrisome interactions with its chatbot months before.
Eby says reports that allege OpenAI had related intelligence before the shootings are “profoundly disturbing for the victims’ families and all British Columbians.”
RCMP have said that the platform reached out the police after the shooting and that “digital and physical evidence is being collected, prioritized, and methodically processed” as part of the ongoing investigation.
On Feb. 10, Jesse Van Rootselaar shot and killed eight people, including six at the local secondary school, before killing herself.
The Wall Street Journal report says Van Rootselaar made posts with ChatGPT about scenarios of gun violence that were flagged by OpenAI’s automatic review system last June.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 21, 2026.
The Canadian Press
