The killer, who police have identified as Jesse Van Rutselaar, committed suicide later Tuesday shooting at Tumbler Ridgea remote community in the Pacific Province of British Columbia. Police also revised the death toll to nine from the initially reported 10.
“Police have visited that (family) residence on a number of occasions over the past few years, addressing concerns about the mental health of our suspect,” said Deputy Commissioner Dwayne MacDonald, commander of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in British Columbia.
Read moreIn a mass shooting at a school in British Columbia, at least 8 dead, dozens wounded
McDonald said Van Rootselaar, who was born male but began identifying as female six years ago, first killed her mother, 39, and 11-year-old half-brother in the family home.
He said that the murders took place in the house first. A young family member in the house went to a neighbor, who called the police.
She then went to the school, where she shot a 39-year-old teacher, as well as three 12-year-old female students and two students, one 12 and one 13.
“We believe the suspect acted alone … it would be premature to speculate on a motive,” he told a news conference.
“There is no information at this time that anyone has been specifically targeted,” MacDonald said.
Police found a long gun and a modified handgun. McDonald said officers arrived at the school two minutes after the first call. When they arrived, shots were fired in their direction.
More than 25 people were wounded Tuesday in an attack in the small mountain community of Tumbler Ridge, police said.
The town of 2,700 residents in the Canadian Rockies is more than 1,000 kilometers northeast of Vancouver, near the provincial border with Alberta.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters, AP)