Family of Tumbler Ridge shooting survivor sues OpenAI

A Tumbler Ridge family, whose daughter was critically injured in the Feb. 10 shooting in the small community, is suing tech giant OpenAI.

Eight people were killed and two others, including 12-year-old Maya Gebala, were hurt in the tragedy. Gebala was trying to lock the library door to protect other students when she was injured.

Cia Edmonds and David Gebala, Maya’s mother and father, said their daughter was struck in her neck and in the head, just above her left eye, when shooter Jesse VanRootselaar opened fire at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School on Feb. 10.

VanRootselaar had gone to the school after killing her mother, Jennifer Strang, and 11-year-old half-brother, Emmett Jacobs, at their family home in northeastern B.C.

Gebala remains at BC Children’s Hospital. On March 7, her mother said that doctors removed her breathing tube, but said that she is fighting every day and starting to look more like herself.

OpenAI said on Feb. 26  it would enhance its police referral and repeat offender detection practices, among other new safety measures, after it did not flag the Tumbler Ridge shooter’s ChatGPT activity to police last summer.

Get daily National news

Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

The company, which said it disabled VanRootselaar’s account in June over “violent” activity, said in a statement that it had also discovered a second ChatGPT account linked to her name after the shooting, despite a system that flags repeat policy offenders.

OpenAI ultimately alerted the RCMP to the shooter’s ChatGPT activity after the mass shooting on Feb. 10.

0:49
OpenAI agrees to safeguards in wake of Tumbler Ridge shooter not being flagged to police

Last Thursday, Premier David Eby said the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, is “prepared to apologize” to the Tumbler Ridge community.

Now, the Gebala family wants to uncover the truth about how and why the shooting happened, establish accountability and help prevent another mass shooting.

The civil suit is being filed on behalf of Maya, her sister Dahlia and Edmonds.

“Approximately 12 employees of the OpenAI Defendants identified the Gun Violence ChatGPT Posts as indicating an imminent risk of serious harm to others and recommended Canadian law enforcement be informed,” the civil suit claims.

“Concerns regarding the Gun Violence ChatGPT Posts were subsequently escalated to leadership,” which chose “to ban the Shooter’s first OpenAI account… rebuffed their employees’ request to contact Canadian law enforcement.”

The suit also alleged that OpenAI “failed to detect and ban the Shooter’s second OpenAI account,” which was used “to continue planning scenarios involving gun violence, including a mass casualty event.”

The suit also claims that OpenAI “took no steps to implement age verification or parental consent procedures” and accuses the defendants of “knowingly and intentionally permitting ChatGPT to provide pseudo-psychological treatment to the Shooter” and that “ChatGPT equipped the shooter with information, guidance and assistance to plan a mass casualty event like the Tumbler Ridge Shooting.”

OpenAI’s revenue in 2025 was US$20 billion.

It has not yet been served with the lawsuit and therefore has not responded to the allegations, which remain unproven.

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.