Girl Shot by Transgender ‘Gunperson’ in Canada Mass Shooting Not Expected to Survive

The mother of a girl who was shot in the head during a mass shooting at a rural Canadian school says she was told on Wednesday to expect the worst. In a heartbreaking Facebook post, Cia Edmonds said that doctors warned her that 12-year-old Maya Edmonds was not expected to survive because “the damage to her brain was too much for her to endure.”“I can feel her in my heart,” Ms. Edwards — who posts under the name Cia Later — wrote. “I can feel her saying it’s going to be ok.”“Please. Wish her luck,” the post continued.The young girl was one of two surviving victims of the shooting Tuesday at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School. The two were airlifted to hospitals due to their life-threatening injuries.Police identified the shooter during a Wednesday afternoon news conference as 18-year-old high school dropout Jesse Van Rootselaar — a biological male who identified as a female. Police said that Van Rootselaar started to transition about six years ago and dropped out of school four years ago.Van Rootselaar’s mother and an 11-year-old — either a brother or step brother — were killed at home before the school shooting that left five students and an educator dead.Van Rootselaar was also found dead in the school of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot.A police alert on Tuesday initially described the shooter as a “female in a dress with brown hair.” Hours later, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police superintendent, Ken Floyd, referred to the killer as a “gunperson.” Officials on Wednesday said they are now referring to Van Rootselaar as female because that is how he identified.The first report of an active shooter at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, which has fewer than 200 students in grades seven to 12, came at approximately 1:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday.Police arrived at the scene in about two minutes and came under immediate gunfire. They entered the building and started a search. Officers located six deceased victims along with Van Rootselaar. Police found a long gun and a modified handgun in the school. The police alert was cancelled at 5:45 p.m. after police determined there were no other suspects or ongoing threat.Among the dead in the school were a 39-year-old female educator, three 12-year-old female students, and two male students — one aged 12 and the other 13 — according to police. Two other victims, including Maya Edmonds, were airlifted to a hospital with life‑threatening injuries. Authorities have not released any of the victims’ names.Approximately 25 other people were assessed and treated for non-life-threatening injuries at the local medical center. None of those victims suffered gunshot wounds but suffered other injuries in the panic.As the school shooting investigation unfolded, police got a call to respond to Van Rootselaar’s home, where the bodies of 39-year-old Jennifer Strang and Van Rootselaar’s sibling were found. Police say they didn’t find any note related to the shootings at either scene.The deputy commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in British Columbia, Dwayne McDonald, said police had responded to the family’s home multiple times in the past for mental health calls involving Van Rootselaar. Mr. McDonald added that officers removed guns from the home during one of those calls two years ago but those weapons were later returned.Crime tape continued to surround the school on Wednesday and the road leading to the building remained closed off as the investigation continued. Classes were canceled for the rest of the week.A student who was in the school as the shooting began says an alarm sounded in the hallways with instructions to close doors because of a lockdown. Darian Quist, a senior, says students barricaded their classroom door and they stayed there for two hours until police escorted them out of the school.“The reality of it all is starting to set in,” Mr. Quist told CBC Radio on Wednesday morning. “I believe I knew somebody, but everything is still very fresh.”Pastor George Rowe of Tumbler Ridge Fellowship Church visited families at a community center on Tuesday evening to provide support to families. “The sight of what I saw was devastating,” Mr. Rowe told CBC News on Wednesday. “It was a situation you never really want to face again.”Prime Minister Mark Carney canceled a trip to Europe and ordered flags on federal government buildings across Canada to be lowered to half-staff.Established in 1981, Tumbler Ridge is a small mountain town of around 2,400 residents. It was built to support several coal mines, and has tried to transform itself into a tourist destination in recent years by promoting outdoor recreation and dinosaur fossils.“It’s a town where everyone knows everyone,” Green Party leader Elizabeth May said in an emotional address to Canada’s House of Commons.

Girl Shot by Transgender ‘Gunperson’ in Canada Mass Shooting Not Expected to Survive

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