At least nine people are dead and dozens more wounded after a suspect rampaged across a picturesque town in British Columbia in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.
Around midday on Tuesday, students and faculty at the Tumbler Ridge Secondary School were plunged into a lockdown after police received reports of gunfire on campus. That came after two people were shot dead at a home in the community by the same suspect, initially described as a “female in a dress with brown hair.”
The shooting is the third-deadliest mass shooting to occur in Canada’s history.
What happened during the shooting at Tumbler Ridge?
Canadian police first received a report about an active shooter at the school at around 1:20 p.m. local time, with authorities responding within two minutes, according to David Eby, the premier of British Columbia.
Darian Quist, a Grade 12 student at the school, told CBC, “I was heading down to the mechanics classroom, nothing seemed wrong.”
Suddenly, Quist said, one of his teachers began shouting in the corridor that the school was being placed under lockdown.
“For a while, I didn’t think anything was going on,” Quist said, until reports on his phone about the shooting began to come through. “We got tables and barricaded the doors and I believe we sat in there for two hours, two hours and thirty minutes, until members of the RCMP and I believe SWAT came through the door and escorted us at the high school.”
The student said that he did not hear the shooting unfolding at the school, since he believes that it was happening upstairs on the other side of the building.
While waiting, though, he began receiving disturbing pictures of “blood” from his classmates in other parts of the school.
RCMP officers lifted the community-wide alert around 5:45 p.m., stating there were no “outstanding suspects or threats to the public.”
Who was the shooter who opened fire at Tumbler Ridge?
Officials have not yet revealed the identity of the suspected shooter, although an initial police report described the suspect as “female in a dress with brown hair.”
Ken Floyd, the RCMP North District Chief Superintendent, has confirmed that the suspect described in the alert was the same person believed to have carried out the shooting.
The suspect was found dead by police, believed to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The shooter’s motive remains unknown, although investigations are underway to determine what led them to attack the school.
“We are not in a place now to be able to understand why or what may have motivated this tragedy,” Floyd told reporters.
Where is Tumbler Ridge Secondary School?
Tumbler Ridge Secondary School is located in the southern portion of Tumbler Ridge, a remote town in the province of British Columbia, Canada
One resident told the newspaper that cellphone service cuts out just 30 seconds after leaving town because of its isolated location.
However, the town is located in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and is surrounded by an expansive UNESCO-recognized geological park.
Tumbler Ridge was once a major hub for mining, but its two major mines closed permanently in 2000 and 2003.
With a population of just 2,400, the town is a tight-knit community, meaning many of the victims of the shooting are known to most of the town.
“I will know every victim. I've been here 19 years, and we're a small community,” the town’s mayor, Darryl Krakowka, said, according to the BBC. “I don't call them residents. I call them family.”
King Charles III echoed the sentiment in a statement released Wednesday morning, saying, “In such a closely connected town, every child’s name will be known and every family will be a neighbour.”
British Columbia, where Tumbler Ridge is located, has the highest rates of gun ownership of any area in Canada. According to the Canadian government, around 16 percent of people surveyed in the area reported owning a firearm.
