Small Canadian Town Reels After Deadliest School Shooting in Decades

A Community Shattered

Nine people were killed and at least 25 more were injured after a mass shooting in the community of Tumbler Ridge, B.C., on Tuesday. Six victims were found dead inside Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and another died on the way to the hospital. Two more people were found dead in a home, which police believed to be connected to the school shooting. A suspected attacker was also found dead from what appeared to be a self‑inflicted injury, police reported, adding that authorities do not believe there were any other suspects or an ongoing threat to the public.

Tumbler Ridge is a remote municipality with a population of about 2,400. Tumbler Ridge Secondary School is a Grade 7-12 school with 160 students, according to its website. "I will know every victim. I've been here 19 years, and we're a small community," Tumbler Ridge Mayor Darryl Krakowka told the CBC. "I don't call them residents. I call them family."

Terror Inside the School

Darian Quist, a grade 12 student at the school, told Canada's CBC Radio West that he and other students "got tables and barricaded the doors" for over two hours during the mass shooting. They barricaded themselves inside for more than two hours, he said, until police escorted them out of the school. Quinn Campbell, 12, said she was in the high school bathroom when she heard several shots. At first, a teacher told her not to worry, suggesting it may have been a loud sound produced by the school shop. Moments later, she was told to take cover.

Quist said that the school was small with only about 20 students in his year level. "The reality of it all is starting to set in," he said. "I believe I knew somebody, but everything is still very fresh" he added, describing the attack as "almost surreal". On February 10, at approximately 1:20 p.m., Tumbler Ridge RCMP received a report of an active shooter at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School.

Historic Tragedy for Canada

Tuesday's shooting was the deadliest attack connected to a Canadian school in nearly 40 years. More than two dozen people were shot during the Ecole Polytechnique massacre in Montreal on Dec. 6, 1989, killing 14 women before the gunman took his own life. On Jan. 22, 2016, four people were killed and seven others injured in a shooting spree in the remote Dene community of La Loche. A student, who was 17 at the time, pleaded guilty to charges of first-degree murder, second-degree murder and attempted murder.

RCMP Northern District commander Ken Floyd told reporters that investigators had identified a female suspect but would not release a name. Authorities described the suspect as a "female in a dress with brown hair". "We are not in a place now to be able to understand why and what may have motivated this tragedy, said the RCMP's Floyd.

A Nation Responds

Prime Minister Mark Carney suspended his plans to travel to Halifax and Munich, Germany, following a deadly school shooting in British Columbia. Carney said in a statement he is devastated by the horrific shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C. B.C. Premier David Eby said at a press conference on Tuesday night that this is a devastating and unimaginable tragedy. "We can't imagine what the community is going through, but I know it's causing us all to hug our kids a little bit tighter tonight," he said.

Amanda Oijen, a real estate agent in Tumbler Ridge, said people don't expect this kind of violence to reach their tiny community. It is the kind of town, she said, where people let their kids ride to school on bicycles, walk to the grocery store or troll to the park, "things you wouldn't normally do in a bigger place." The tragedy serves as a stark reminder that even the most remote communities aren't immune to the violence that has plagued schools across North America, forcing conversations about safety measures and support systems that no small town ever expects to need.