Warning: Graphic content A 30-year-old from Bellingham, Wash., has been arrested and charged in connection with the mass shooting at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in British Columbia earlier this year. James Cody Bryant helped 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar with plans to livestream the carnage and helped the shooter review plans for the violence, the U.S. Department of Justice has alleged. Bryant has been charged with conspiracy to murder persons in a foreign country. The U.S. Department of Justice announced the development in a brief statement Tuesday morning. At a news conference in Seattle, Acting U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd and representatives from the FBI and RCMP shared more information. Bryant initially met Van Rootselaar on a now-defunct random chat site, and the pair kept in contact via Discord, which reported the conversation to authorities shortly after Van Rootselaar committed the Feb. 10 mass shooting, according to U.S. authorities. A criminal complaint from the FBI alleges that Bryant provided money and planning support to Van Rootselaar in the months leading up to the attack. ‘Casual tone’ The document includes numerous chat logs of the pair’s conversations, and authorities highlighted the casual tone of many of the communications, despite their serious content. In one such instance in August 2025, Van Rootselaar describes the 1989 École Polytechnic shooting and expresses a desire to kill more people than the shooter in that case, with a goal of completing the deadliest mass shooting in Canadian history. She goes on to claim that she doesn’t want to commit a school shooting, but “there’s just so many reasons why it’s ideal.” Van Rootselaar adds that “a place like Walmart or Costco” would have a lot of people, but a mall would be a preferable target. “I don’t wanna die in a sh**ty Walmart, I’d rather a mall because at least that’s a nice place to buy things lol,” the transcript reads. In a later exchange, from December 2025, Van Rootselaar asks if she would have “fans” after committing her mass murder. “I think you definitely would,” Bryant responds. Van Rootselaar then wonders if people would be mad at her hypothetical fans for “romanticizing” her, to which Bryant replies: “probably, lol.” “I read a lot of court documents, including some that discuss incredibly heinous acts of violence,” said W. Mike Herrington, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Seattle office. “This complaint was particularly difficult to read, in part because of the casual tone these two individuals used when discussing the mass taking of innocent lives that was being planned.” Failed livestream Notoriety appears to have been a key motivation for Van Rootselaar’s crimes. The criminal complaint describes her as “insistent” that the murders be livestreamed and disseminated across the internet, which Bryant allegedly agreed to help do. In an August 2025 conversation reproduced in the document, Bryant appears to help Van Rootselaar with a test livestream, telling her it “looks solid,” but noting the quality “might dip if more people are using phones to contact emergency services.” Later, Bryant recommends using a Starlink transmission dish to maintain optimal stream quality during the attack. On the day of the mass shooting, Van Rootselaar exchanged several messages with Bryant, including one that included a livestream link. The transcript in the criminal complaint shows Bryant replying with, “watching now,” before sending another message saying “stream down.” The livestream lasted about 20 seconds before going down, according to the document. Van Rootselaar appears to have been more concerned, at that point in the day, with getting to the school. She had already killed her mother and half brother at her family home, a fact she referenced in a message to Bryant that read: “I’m going now. Fr (for real). Live. I shot them. F**k.” She messaged Bryant claiming to be unable to start her mother’s vehicle, which she used to drive to the high school and continue her killings. The document notes that Van Rootselaar did not know how to drive. Bryant responded with some advice on how to start the vehicle. At the school, Van Rootselaar killed five students and an educational assistant, then died by suicide. Suspect’s gender Bryant was arrested Tuesday morning in Bellingham, officials said. The accused made a first court appearance at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the U.S. District Courthouse in Seattle. At court, a detention hearing was scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 13. Bryant will be held in custody while awaiting that appearance. The criminal complaint does not use any gendered pronouns for Bryant, and refers to Van Rootselaar as “she” throughout. Van Rootselaar was transgender. She was assigned male at birth and had socially transitioned. Asked whether Bryant is also transgender, officials at Tuesday’s news conference said they believe that to be the case. One photo included in the criminal complaint shows Van Rootselaar holding a rifle with a plastic part near the end of the barrel in the colours of the transgender flag. Another photo shows a different gun held up in front of a transgender flag. There is a sticker on it in the same colours. While Bryant and Van Rootselaar were both transgender, authorities said there’s no indication that they shared a political ideology or were members of any particular organization. “We don’t have information at this time that would indicate that,” Floyd said. ‘Avoid that tragedy’ The criminal complaint contains several exchanges between Bryant and Van Rootselaar in which Bryant seems to be trying to talk Van Rootselaar out of the shooting. “Ruining other people’s lives isn’t the answer,” Bryant says, in one exchange. “Idc (I don’t care) about their lives,” Van Rootselaar responds. “The only tragedy is the loss of my own life.” “So, avoid that tragedy,” Bryant writes. Even in these exchanges, though, some of Bryant’s statements suggest a callous disregard for others. On another occasion, Van Rootselaar asks if Bryant will think less of her if she goes through with her plans. Bryant replies that the act Van Rootselaar intends to commit is “horrible,” but adds that she’ll be “loved and mourned” after “the initial shock and horror passes.” “If you do it, you’re likely not surviving, so you’ll never have to see how I react,” Bryant writes. “I don’t think it’ll be long til I’m mourning you instead. Shooting in another country is like, not something that would affect my mental, losing you is the more impactful thing.” ‘A few others’ In several other quoted conversations, Bryant agrees not to “snitch” on Van Rootselaar. “I really hope you wouldn’t ever snitch just because that’d make my life more of a waste lol,” reads one message from Van Rootselaar from August 2025. “Like if you knew I was actively headed somewhere with intent to do something bad. Could totally make a tip about me and get me in trouble.” Bryant responded: " I could. I don’t want to honestly. I know I can like, save lives I guess but idk (I don’t know)." Later that month, in response to Van Rootselaar saying she didn’t think anyone could stop her “without a gun of their own,” Bryant replied: “I might be the only one who can at this point lol.” “Lol how,” Van Rootselaar replied. “I mean you could snitch, others technically could do that too tho so ur not the only 1.” This is one of at least two references to “others” who know about Van Rootselaar’s plans that can be seen in her messages in the FBI document. On another occasion, when discussing livestream capabilities, she referenced previous mass shooters supposedly having teams of “20-plus” people watching and recording their videos for further distribution. “I don’t have a community of 20+ people to just alter that im doin a crazy stream,” Van Rootselaar wrote. “I only have you and a few others, so I am likely to fail.” During Tuesday’s news conference, Asst. Comm. Elija Rain, the acting commanding officer of the B.C. RCMP, told reporters the Canadian investigation remains ongoing. “The RCMP investigation is still active and open, looking at, potentially, other individuals,” Rain said. “We’re assessing other contacts, other social media information,” he added, when asked for clarification. “So, that will continue on for some time.” Rain stopped short of promising further arrests in the future. Shooter’s other influences In the days since the tragedy, Van Rootselaar’s use of ChatGPT in planning the killings has come under scrutiny, with multiple lawsuits launched against OpenAI over its failure to report the shooter’s troubling conversations with the chat bot. Van Rootselaar had one ChatGPT account banned before creating a second account and continuing her conversation. Last month, the U.S. magazine Mother Jones published a story by Mark Follman alleging that ChatGPT advised the shooter on how to get around its own safeguards by framing scenarios as fictional. “Don’t use real-world locations,” the article quotes ChatGPT as saying, before adding: “You can still be twisted. Just be clever about it.” Survivors, victims’ families and the government of B.C. have all sued OpenAI in California, where the tech company is headquartered. It has sought to have many of the cases dismissed, arguing that British Columbia courts would be a better forum for hearing the complaints. Public inquiry commitments B.C. NDP candidate Niki Sharma, who was B.C.’s attorney general at the time of the February mass shooting, told reporters on Tuesday that the party remains committed to a public inquiry into the incident should it form government again after the Oct. 24 election. Sharma described the details in the criminal complaint as “chilling” and said Tuesday was “a very terrible day” for the families of those killed in the shootings. “I want to tell people out there that if they need help, there’s victim supports out there to seek out that help if they need it,” Sharma said. “We as a government are focused on supporting those families, but also getting answers. Premier (David) Eby and myself have been clear about using every tool in our toolbox to get answers and accountability, including a public inquiry.” Sharma also addressed the impact of Tuesday’s announcement on the government’s lawsuit against OpenAI, saying B.C. would “continue to pursue” it. “It wasn’t very long ago that I was before you when some of the contents were revealed publicly about what those chats were,” Sharma said. “They remain very disturbing to me, and I’ve been calling (for) urgent action on AI safety.” Asked whether an NDP government would pursue action against Discord or other platforms Van Rootselaar used to communicate in the lead up to the tragedy, Sharma said “there needs to always be accountability for platforms.” She stopped short of promising any specific lawsuit, saying there was “a lot of information” that her office would need to “sit with” before taking such an action. Interim B.C. Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson also addressed Tuesday’s news from the campaign trail. He offered his “thoughts and prayers” to Tumbler Ridge residents and families affected by the tragedy and committed to “a full public inquiry” should his party form B.C.’s next government. “I want to thank the law enforcement, both north and south of the border, that have done incredible work,” Doerkson said. “It is absolutely necessary that British Columbians get to the bottom of this and understand fully what happened here.”
