BC Sues OpenAI Alleging Failure to Warn Before Shooting

British Columbia filed a lawsuit in California against OpenAI, alleging it could have used ChatGPT logs to warn police and avert a mass shooting in the Canadian province earlier this year.

On Feb. 10, teenager Jesse Van Rootselaar allegedly killed five students and a teacher at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in northern BC, as well as her mother, her half-brother and finally herself.

Van Rootselaar used ChatGPT before the massacre, which was one of Canada’s worst-ever shootings. OpenAI internally flagged and banned one of Van Rootselaar’s accounts for concerning activity in 2025, but didn’t escalate a warning to police. The company later disclosed she also had a second account that wasn’t detected or stopped.

BC’s lawsuit hinges on OpenAI staffers’ decision not to notify Canadian authorities.

The filing says it seeks to hold the company “accountable for designing a dangerous product, distributing it to every home with internet access, ignoring the warnings of their own safety team, refusing to notify authorities when they knew the shooter was planning gun violence, inviting the shooter back onto the platform after deactivating the shooter’s account, and choosing corporate self-interest over the lives of children.”

BC wants a jury trial and seeks compensation for the harm inflicted, damages incurred and ongoing, and “injunctive relief to ensure that this tragedy does not happen again,” the filing said.

“One telephone call to the RCMP could have prevented the tragedy,” the document added, referring to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

An OpenAI spokesperson said by email: “What happened in Tumbler Ridge was an unspeakable tragedy, and our thoughts remain with the victims, their families, and the entire community.”

The company is committed to working with government and law enforcement agencies “and continuing to advance our ongoing safety work,” it said in the emailed statement.

Read More: OpenAI Faces New Lawsuits Linked to Shooting at Canadian School

OpenAI told Canadian lawmakers in February it would have referred Van Rootselaar to police under newly updated policies. In April, Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman published a letter to the town of Tumbler Ridge in which he said he was sorry the company didn’t alert law enforcement.

The Canadian province’s legal challenge follows multiple lawsuits filed by families against the company. BC’s claim is separate and parallel, Attorney General Niki Sharma told reporters.

“I want to be clear: I have not read the interactions between the shooter and ChatGPT. We have asked OpenAI to disclose these chats. They have refused. We should all be asking them why,” she said.