TUMBLER RIDGE, Canada: At least 10 people, including the shooter are dead after an assailant opened fire at a high school in western Canada on Tuesday in one of the country’s deadliest mass casualty events in recent history.
Six people were found dead inside a high school in the town of Tumbler Ridge, in British Columbia, two more people were found dead at a residence believed to be connected to the incident, and another person died on the way to hospital, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.
Police did not say how many of the victims may have been minors. Parents gathered in a local community centre as they waited to learn the fate of their children.
“It was a situation that you really never want to face again ... the sight of what I saw was devastating, many parents just waiting for the news on whether their child had survived the shooting or not,” said local pastor George Rowe.
Police would only identify victims when they had “absolute, unequivocal identification,” he told CBC News on Wednesday.
“It’s hard to know what to say on a night like tonight. It’s the kind of thing that feels like it happens in other places and not close to home,” British Columbia Premier David Eby told reporters.
Darian Quist, a 17-year-old student at the school, said his class had been locked down for more than two hours starting at about 1.30 pm local time. Although he heard nothing, other pupils later shared photos of scenes where blood could be seen, he told CBC News.
A police active shooter alert said the suspect was described “as female in a dress with brown hair”. Police Superintendent Ken Floyd later confirmed that the suspect described in the alert was the same person found dead in the school.
Tumbler Ridge Secondary School has 160 students in grades seven through 12, roughly ages 12 to 18, according to its website. The school was closed for the rest of the week and counseling will be made available to those in need, school officials said.
Officials said the town’s small police force was on the scene within two minutes of receiving a call, and that victims were still being assessed hours after the incident.
The shooter in the mass killing in Canada opened fire on police, a commander said on Wednesday, naming the attacker and identifying them as an 18-year-old transgender woman.
“Upon arrival, there was active gunfire, and as officers approached the school, rounds were fired in their direction,” said deputy commissioner of the British Columbia Royal Canadian Mounted Police Dwayne McDonald.
The shooter in the mass killing in Canada murdered their mother and brother during their killing spree in a remote mining community, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) commander told reporters on Wednesday.
“The female adult victim is the mother of the suspect, and the youth male is the brother of the suspect, or stepbrother,” said deputy commissioner of the British Columbia RCMP Dwayne McDonald.
