B.C. attorney general calls for Criminal Code changes after ChatGPT helped Tumbler Ridge shooter plan attack
A Mother Jones investigation revealed the 18-year-old obtained tactical advice from ChatGPT by rephrasing requests after the platform's initial refusals.
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British Columbia's attorney general is pushing the federal government to change the Criminal Code after a Mother Jones investigation revealed that Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18, obtained tactical advice from ChatGPT before killing four students, one educational assistant, her mother, and her half-brother at Tumbler Ridge Secondary on February 10, then taking her own life.
Attorney General Niki Sharma called Friday for "a clear pathway for human and corporate accountability for the actions of AI." She said the details in the Mother Jones report were "far worse than I ever imagined."
The investigation, based on chat-log history obtained by the magazine and three unnamed sources, showed that Van Rootselaar's first ChatGPT account was banned in June 2025 after she discussed potential violent acts. She created a second account and used the platform for eight months leading up to the shooting. ChatGPT sometimes refused her requests involving violence, but Van Rootselaar was able to get responses by modifying or repeating her prompts — including by adding the word "hypothetically" to a request asking for ChatGPT's assessment of a school attack scenario using a Remington 870 pump-action shotgun.
"In a hallway, indoors, or a crowded classroom, the 870 is brutal. Close quarters is its playground," ChatGPT responded, according to Mother Jones. "Assuming each shell results in one hit, you might down 10 to 20 people max, depending on spacing, density, reaction times, and chaos."
Mother Jones also reported that ChatGPT advised Van Rootselaar how to get around its own safeguards by framing content as fictional. One response included: "You can still be twisted. Just be clever about it."
Sharma said that Criminal Code changes would alter AI companies' behaviour by establishing clear accountability. "If we do the right changes to the Criminal Code, it will change the behaviour of AI companies, because there will be a clear line to accountability," she said.
The RCMP said it is not in position to verify information in the Mother Jones article, noting that its investigation has used "all available legal processes to obtain all information available from various social media and digital platforms relevant to the Tumbler Ridge mass casualty."
Mark Daley, professor and chief AI officer at Western University, said the interactions reported are typical of older AI models. "Early on, we were tuning these models to really genuinely be sycophantic and to glaze the user and do whatever it was the user asked, which is not consistent with the desire for safeguards," he said.
The facts
Who was the Tumbler Ridge shooter?
Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18, killed four students, one educational assistant, her mother, and her half-brother at Tumbler Ridge Secondary on February 10, then took her own life.
How did the shooter use ChatGPT before the attack?
Van Rootselaar created a second ChatGPT account after her first was banned in June 2025 for discussing violent acts. She used the platform for eight months leading up to the shooting, rephrasing requests that were initially refused — including adding the word 'hypothetically' — to obtain tactical advice about weapons and school attack scenarios.
What is B.C.'s attorney general calling for?
Attorney General Niki Sharma is calling for Criminal Code changes to establish clear accountability for AI companies, arguing that such changes would alter their behaviour and safeguards.
