OpenAI Banned Shooters Account Before Canada Massacre

OpenAI, the developer of the ChatGPT artificial intelligence tool, flagged and banned the account of Jesse Van Rootselaar eight months before the 18-year-old carried out a deadly mass shooting in the remote Canadian town of Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, according to the company. The San Francisco-based firm considered referring the activity to law enforcement at the time but ultimately decided against it, citing a lack of evidence for an imminent threat.

The shooting occurred on February 10, 2026, in the town of about 2,700 residents, located more than 1,000 kilometers northeast of Vancouver in the Canadian Rockies near the Alberta border. Van Rootselaar first killed her mother and stepbrother at the family home, authorities said, before proceeding to a nearby school where the 18-year-old fatally shot six others and wounded at least 25 people. The victims included a 39-year-old teaching assistant and five students aged 12 to 13. Van Rootselaar then died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the scene. The rampage marked Canada's deadliest mass shooting since a 2020 incident in Nova Scotia that claimed 22 lives.

OpenAI detected the account associated with Van Rootselaar in...