OpenAI Flagged and Banned Tumbler Ridge Shooter Jesse Van Rootselaar’s ChatGPT Account Months Before He Killed at the School and Did Not Alert Police

OpenAI’s automated systems flagged and later banned a ChatGPT account linked to 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar in June 2025, months before the Tumbler Ridge school attack.

“A shooting in a small Canadian Rockies town of about 2,700 people — more than 1,000 km northeast of Vancouver near the Alberta border — left six people dead, including a 39‑year‑old teaching assistant and five students aged 12–13”

Associated Press

Multiple outlets report OpenAI detected posts the company deemed related to violent activity and removed the account, but concluded at the time the material did not meet its internal threshold for notifying law enforcement.

Associated Press

After the massacre, OpenAI says it contacted the RCMP and is cooperating with investigators.

Reporting highlights internal debate at OpenAI about whether the account should have been referred to police.

The Wall Street Journal is cited by multiple outlets as saying employees urged leadership to alert authorities.

BBC

OpenAI and other reports say company leaders did not find a 'credible or imminent' plan for serious harm and therefore did not make a referral.

Several sources quote OpenAI's referral standard — that it requires an imminent and credible risk of serious physical harm — as the basis for its decision.

Accounts differ on casualty totals, timelines and how the two school incidents have been described.

“OpenAI said it is reviewing the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting case and its own referral criteria, including a “thorough review of the content on electronic devices, as well as social media and online activities,” Kris Clark said”

CBC

Several outlets describe an 18-year-old who killed eight people and later died by what police say was a self-inflicted gunshot.

Other reports describe a separate attack that killed six (a teaching assistant and five students) and note community mourning in a small Rockies town.

These differences appear because some articles focus on the Tumbler Ridge attack tied to Van Rootselaar while others report on a distinct, nearby school shooting or use different victim counts and dates.

Coverage differs in tone and in the details each outlet highlights.

Several mainstream Western outlets (The Globe and Mail, BBC, Associated Press, Toronto Star) emphasize OpenAI’s stated policies and its post-attack cooperation with police, while Asian outlets (South China Morning Post, The Straits Times, Firstpost) combine policy detail with explicit casualty counts and family details.

Firstpost

Firstpost uniquely includes reporting about the shooter’s alleged mental-health history and a quote from an estranged father, and it also contains unrelated coverage about alleged Iranian tech theft, showing a different editorial scope.

OpenAI’s automated systems detected and banned an account linked to Jesse Van Rootselaar in June 2025.

“Agrim scoop from theWall Street Journal: an automated review system at OpenAI flagged disturbing conversations that a future mass shooter was having with the company’s flagship AI ChatGPT — but, despite being urged by employees at the company to warn law enforcement, OpenAI leadership opted not to”

Futurism

Company staff debated whether to alert authorities.

Futurism

OpenAI says it did not refer the account then because it judged there was no imminent, credible plan.

The company says it reached out to police only after the later school killings.

Sources diverge on victim counts, the sequence of events, and the emphasis each outlet places on staff warnings versus corporate policy.

As a result, the full public picture contains clear points of agreement and clear uncertainties.