Family Sues OpenAI Over ChatGPT in Shooting Plan

In Vancouver, the family of a 12-year-old girl critically injured during a mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, has filed a civil lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging the company's artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT assisted the shooter in planning the attack and that the firm failed to alert authorities despite internal warnings.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in the B.C. Supreme Court on behalf of Maya Gebala, centers on the February 10, 2026, incident in which 18-year-old Jesse Van Roostselaar killed eight people, including family members and students at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, before taking her own life. Gebala, a student at the school, was shot three times at close range—one bullet striking her head, another her neck, and a third grazing her cheek—resulting in catastrophic brain damage that court documents describe as causing permanent cognitive and physical disabilities. She was dragged from the school for emergency treatment on site before being transferred to BC Children's Hospital in Vancouver, where she remains intubated and sedated.

According to the court filing, Van Roostselaar, who was underage, created a ChatGPT account without the parental consent...