Justin (Jesse) Van Rootselaar

Justin (Jesse)  Van Rootselaar ,also known as Jesse Strang, was identified as the suspected shooter by RCMP deputy commissioner Dwayne McDonald, after initially being described by the RCMP as "a female in a dress with brown hair".

McDonald stated that Van Rootselaar was a "trans woman" (transvestite) who had dropped out of school at age 14, about four years prior to the shooting. Under the law, education is compulsory until age 16, but "it appears that no one intervened to keep him in school." According to McDonald, there was no information to suggest that Van Rootselaar had been bullied at school.

Family

Van Rootselaar was born to Justin Van Rootselaar and Jennifer Strang. Van Rootselaar was estranged from his father, which his father blamed on choices made by her mother.

 His father also said that she never used his last name, Van Rootselaar. Instead, she used his mother's last name, Strang.

Van Rootselaar and siblings had been the subject of custody disputes between their parents, and they had moved between Newfoundland and Labrador, including the town of Lawn where Jennifer Strang grew up, and parts of Western Canada, including Grande Cache, Alberta and Powell River, British Columbia, multiple times between 2010 and 2015.

 Jennifer Strang was in the process of divorcing her husband, who was the father of three of her children (including the 11-year-old son killed alongside her) and who resided in Alberta at the time of the attack.

Interest in guns and violence

Van Rootselaar's YouTube profile picture featured an anime-style mascot and a rifle set against a pink-and-white-striped background. A TikTok account, which used the same profile image under the username "jessestrangg", featured multiple reposted videos of the transgender mass shooter who killed six people at a Christian school in Nashville in 2023.

 In a social media post in c. 2022, Van Rootselaar's mother "promoted the teenager's YouTube channel ... noting that her child 'posts about hunting, self-reliance, guns'". The Daily Telegraph reported that videos on the YouTube channel show Van Rootselaar "firing a high-powered Desert Eagle handgun at a shooting range ... carrying out target practice with a tactical 12-gauge shotgun and firing a semi-automatic carbine at targets".

 A Reddit account linked to the shooter posted a video in 2023 at a firing range.

About five months before the shooting, he created an account on WatchPeopleDie.tv, a web forum dedicated to gore videos and violence that has been frequented by multiple other mass shooters, including Natalie Rupnow, whose profile was visited by Van Rootselaar. Van Rootselaar's posts on the website included multiple photos of firearms, including an SKS rifle and a KRISS Vector gun, and videos of her firing them. Van Rootselaar created a mall shooting simulator game on Roblox, according to the platform's administrators.

Van Rootselaar had previously held a valid minor's licence (12–17), which only allows for temporarily borrowing a non-restricted (ordinary rifle or shotgun) firearm for approved purposes; it had expired in 2024. He was not the owner of any firearms because acquiring and possessing firearms is not allowed with a minor's licence. 

According to McDonald, Jennifer Strang "had a valid firearms licence but did not have any restricted firearms that would require registration".

 RCMP confirmed that in a previous police visit in the past two years, "firearms were seized under the Criminal Code", but that "the lawful owner of those firearms petitioned for them to be returned, and they were".

 A relative told The Globe and Mail that the seized guns had been returned "roughly a month" prior to the shooting.

In June 2025, OpenAI had banned a ChatGPT account belonging to Van Rootselaar due to violent queries. However, administrators had opted not to report the account to authorities at the time.

 The Wall Street Journal reported that Van Rootselaar's conversations with the chatbot "described scenarios involving gun violence over the course of several days", and that these messages were "flagged by an automated review system".

At that time, about a dozen OpenAI employees debated turning the chatlogs over to the law enforcement. A spokeswoman for OpenAI confirmed that the company had banned Van Rootselaar's account. However, the official stated that it determined that his activity did not meet the criteria for reporting to law enforcement.

Drug use and mental health

Van Rootselaar wrote on social media that she "regularly took DMT" and tried to "burn [his] house down after using psychedelic mushrooms". The mother of one of the victims, who was also friends with the shooter's family, confirmed that Van Rootselaar had "tried to light a mattress on fire 'and burn the house down'". 

After using psilocybin mushrooms in October 2023, Van Rootselaar wrote: "I had a complete break from reality and did a lot of irrational things, I felt like I was dreaming. Many consequences ensued." He claimed in 2023 to be treating ADHD and OCD with antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs.

Van Rootselaar had a history of poor mental health. Police had responded to mental health-related calls several times previously, including multiple cases of hospitalization under the province's Mental Health Act.

 In 2023, Van Rootselaar "spent weeks receiving treatment in Prince George". The police had last visited the home in spring 2025 regarding mental health issues, including self-harm