đHORROR IN THE WILDERNESS: Teen school shooter ‘targeted his OWN family’ in Canada’s worst classroom massacre in decades â as witness reveals chilling theory behind slaughter of seven innocents
Published: 15 February 2026 08:15 GMT | Updated: 15 February 2026 15:30 GMT
In a revelation that has sent fresh waves of horror through a remote Canadian mountain town, a teenage eyewitness has sensationally claimed the 18-year-old gunman who carried out Canada’s deadliest school shooting in decades may have been hunting down his own family when he burst into the building and opened fire.
The bombshell theory â shared exclusively with The Telegraph by 17-year-old Duncan McKay â suggests Jesse Van Rootselaar deliberately targeted the high school in tiny Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, because his younger brother and sister were pupils there.
‘I think he came to the school to find his family,’ Duncan told reporters, his voice still shaking days after the February 10 bloodbath that left seven dead â including the killer’s own mother and 11-year-old half-brother.
It was a massacre born of unimaginable family torment.
The snow-blanketed Tumbler Ridge Secondary School where the nightmare unfolded â now a scene of unimaginable grief in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains
The quiet, close-knit community of just 2,400 souls nestled beneath the towering peaks of the Rockies was shattered forever that Tuesday afternoon when Van Rootselaar â described by neighbours as a reclusive loner â first turned his unregistered handgun on his own home.
He is believed to have executed his 39-year-old mother in cold blood before shooting dead his 11-year-old half-brother, who shared the same mother but had a different father.
Then, armed and apparently consumed by rage, he drove the short distance to the local high school â where two of his younger siblings were attending classes â and unleashed hell in the library and stairwells.
Five innocent children aged just 12 and 13 were gunned down alongside their 39-year-old teacher, Shannda Aviugana-Durand, in what authorities are calling Canada’s most devastating school shooting in a generation.
The victims, named on Thursday, were Zoey Benoit, Ticaria Lampert, Kylie Smith, Abel Mwansa (12) and Ezekiel Schofield (13).
None of them were related to the shooter.
Yet the eyewitness account has raised the chilling possibility that Van Rootselaar â who then turned the gun on himself â was specifically looking for his own flesh and blood when the bullets started flying.
Duncan McKay was playing badminton in the school gym when the first shots rang out.
‘It sounded like a hammer hitting metal â more than a dozen times,’ he recalled. ‘We just ran. We hid in the storage room, turned off the lights and stayed completely silent for three hours until police said it was safe.’
He didn’t know Van Rootselaar personally. But he knew the killer’s younger siblings attended the same school â and that one of them, the 11-year-old boy later found dead at the family home, had been in the building that day.
‘He must have been looking for them,’ Duncan said quietly. ‘Why else would he come here?’
Police have so far refused to confirm or deny the family-target theory, insisting the full investigation could take weeks or even months.
‘We are exploring every possible motive,’ a spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said. ‘At this stage, nothing is being ruled out.’
But the suggestion has sent shockwaves through the tight-knit town where ‘everybody knows everybody’.
An RCMP officer stands guard at the entrance to Tumbler Ridge as the remote community remains in lockdown following the horrific school shooting
For a place this small, the betrayal feels almost personal.
Neighbours who spoke to Daily Mail described Van Rootselaar as a ghost-like figure who rarely left the family home.
‘We hardly ever saw him,’ said Danny, 31, who lives just a few doors away. ‘He kept to himself completely.’
Another resident, Neal Smith, 39, knew other members of the troubled family but said the eldest son was almost invisible. ‘The family had five kids. Jesse was the oldest. But he was never around.’
Court records and police logs paint an even darker picture of a deeply disturbed young man battling severe mental health issues.
Van Rootselaar had multiple previous contacts with authorities, including welfare checks related to mental health crises and at least one incident involving firearms.
His gun licence had expired in 2024 â and astonishingly, no firearms were registered in his name.
Yet he still obtained a weapon.
Social media posts that were later deleted reportedly showed a young man struggling with gender dysphoria and profound personal torment.
Friends and former classmates have spoken of a troubled soul who felt alienated and alone.
Even more disturbing: reports emerged this week that Van Rootselaar may have created a Roblox game that allowed players to simulate a mass shooting.
The gaming platform confirmed to The Telegraph that it had removed accounts linked to the suspect and was cooperating fully with police.
‘We have zero tolerance for content that glorifies or simulates real-world violence,’ a Roblox spokesperson said.
The revelation has triggered fresh outrage over violent video games and their potential role in fuelling real-world atrocities.
But for the devastated families of Tumbler Ridge, such debates feel painfully distant.
On Thursday night, hundreds gathered for an emotional candlelight vigil in the freezing February air, their faces lit by hundreds of flickering flames as they mourned the lost children and beloved teacher.
One mother, who asked not to be named, clutched a photo of her 12-year-old daughter who survived by hiding under a desk in the library.
‘She keeps waking up screaming,’ the woman said through tears. ‘She says she can still hear the shots.’
Heartbreaking scenes at a candlelight vigil in Tumbler Ridge as the tiny community comes together to mourn the seven victims of the school massacre
The school itself â a low, modern building surrounded by snow-covered pines â remains closed indefinitely.
Grief counsellors have been flown in from across British Columbia, but locals say the scars will last for generations.
Tumbler Ridge was once a booming coal-mining town. When the mines closed, it reinvented itself as a haven for those seeking a quieter life in the shadow of the Rockies.
Now it has joined the grim list of places forever defined by a single day of unimaginable violence.
Canada has long prided itself on having far stricter gun laws than its southern neighbour.
Yet this latest atrocity â the deadliest school shooting since the 1989 Ăcole Polytechnique massacre in Montreal â has reignited fierce debate about firearms, mental health and the hidden dangers lurking in even the most isolated communities.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a statement expressing ‘profound sorrow’ and promising a full review of gun licensing procedures.
But many in Tumbler Ridge are demanding more.
‘How did an 18-year-old with known mental health issues get his hands on a gun?’ asked one angry resident at the vigil. ‘This shouldn’t happen here. Not in Canada.’
As the investigation continues, police have warned the public not to speculate.
Yet the questions keep coming.
Why did he kill his own mother and little brother first?
Was the school attack really a desperate, twisted attempt to wipe out the rest of his family?
And how many warning signs were missed?
For now, the people of Tumbler Ridge are left to pick up the pieces in the brutal winter cold.
Flags fly at half-mast. Schools across the province have offered counselling.
But in a town this small, the empty desks and broken families are impossible to ignore.
One local teacher, who knew the murdered educator Shannda Aviugana-Durand, summed up the collective grief.
‘She was the kind of teacher who stayed late to help kids who were struggling. And now she’s gone â because of a boy who was struggling too.’
As night falls over the Rocky Mountains, the wind howling through the pines carries the sound of quiet sobbing from homes across the valley.
A community forever changed.
A nation once again asking: how many more?