British Columbia’s Attorney General Niki Sharma announced on July 7 that the province has retained legal counsel to explore action against OpenAI. The reason: the company allegedly failed to alert authorities about violent threats made on ChatGPT months before a mass shooting that killed multiple people at a school in Tumbler Ridge.
What happened in Tumbler Ridge
On February 10, 2026, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar opened fire at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in British Columbia, killing eight or nine people, including six children and two adults, before taking his own life.
OpenAI had flagged Van Rootselaar’s ChatGPT account back in June 2025, roughly eight months before the attack. The flag was for discussions related to gun violence. OpenAI subsequently banned the account but never made a police referral. The internal threshold for reporting concerning activity to authorities, OpenAI later said, was not met.
The legal pressure mounts
