British Columbia sues OpenAI over school shooting failure to warn

British Columbia has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in California federal court, alleging the company failed to warn police after its internal safety team flagged the shooter's violent ChatGPT conversations months before a deadly school attack. The lawsuit, filed on September 21, 2026, names OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, as defendants. The legal action stems from the mass shooting at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School on February 10, 2026, which killed eight people, including six children. The shooter, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, also killed her mother and stepbrother at home before dying by suicide. The province alleges that OpenAI's safety team identified concerning activity on Van Rootselaar's account in June 2025, nearly eight months before the attack, and recommended contacting law enforcement. According to the lawsuit, OpenAI leadership, including Altman, overruled the safety team's recommendation. The filing claims the company declined to report the threat due to concerns about its commercial prospects and an anticipated initial public offering.