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British Columbia Attorney General Niki Sharma announced on September 21 that the province had filed a lawsuit in San Francisco federal court against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman over the company’s alleged role in the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting. According to Sharma the suit claims OpenAI knew about the shooter’s disturbing interactions with ChatGPT but failed to notify the RCMP which could have prevented the February 10 tragedy. The province is seeking damages to cover recovery costs including the construction of a new school after the original building was demolished as well as court-ordered changes to how the company handles conversations that could lead to violence. Reuters reported that the filing also accuses OpenAI of designing an unsafe product in its flagship chatbot.
The mass shooting on February 10 2026 saw 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar kill her mother and 11-year-old stepbrother at home before opening fire at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School where five students aged 12 to 13 and a 39-year-old educational assistant died. Van Rootselaar then died by suicide in what CBC News described as one of Canada’s deadliest mass shootings in modern history. A Globe and Mail report noted that the incident prompted an outpouring of grief in the small northern British Columbia community and led to multiple rounds of litigation against the artificial intelligence company.
OpenAI had flagged Van Rootselaar’s account in June 2025 after conversations involving gun violence triggered an internal safety review according to details cited in the lawsuit by Reuters. Sharma stated that despite alarming content that prompted at least a dozen OpenAI employees to urge notification of Canadian law enforcement the company took no such action and the shooter created a second account. The B.C. government argued in its filing that a single warning to police who had previously visited the family home over mental health concerns and removed firearms would likely have stopped the attack.
Sam Altman issued an apology to the Tumbler Ridge community in April in which he said he was deeply sorry that we did not alert law enforcement to the account that was banned in June as quoted in the provincial lawsuit. That statement came after families of victims filed seven separate suits in California federal court in April with additional cases bringing the total to more than 30 by early September according to The Guardian. Those earlier actions filed on behalf of slain students their families and survivors including a 12-year-old girl who suffered life-changing injuries similarly alleged negligence and product liability against OpenAI and Altman.
The provincial suit was filed jointly with the Peace River South School District and aims to recover costs tied to emergency response community support and rebuilding efforts a Vancouver Sun account of Sharma’s news conference showed. Al Jazeera reported that the legal action also demands systemic reforms at OpenAI to improve identification and reporting of user conversations that pose credible threats of violence. Sharma emphasized that no company or corporate leader should be beyond scrutiny when public safety is at stake adding that the suit would help secure accountability for grieving families.
OpenAI has faced other legal claims related to violence facilitated through its tools including a separate shooting case in Florida as noted in the Reuters coverage of the British Columbia filing. The company has said it prioritizes safety and works to create standards for reporting such cases to law enforcement according to a statement from its chief strategy officer carried by The Guardian. British Columbia Premier David Eby previously highlighted the need to understand why OpenAI staff flagged the content yet chose not to involve authorities a point echoed in coverage by CNN Business of the broader litigation wave.
