Ten people were dead, including the suspect gunman, and dozens were injured Tuesday in two connected shootings at a high school and a residence in rural British Columbia, Canadian authorities said.
Six people were found dead at the high school in Tumbler Ridge, a town of about 2,400 people located in northeastern British Columbia near the Alberta border, while a seventh victim died while being transported to the hospital, Ken Floyd, chief superintendent of the RCMP’s North District, said in a press conference.
Authorities said the suspected shooter was among those found dead at the scene. Floyd said the unidentified gunman died from a suspected self-inflicted wound.
Two victims who were discovered wounded at the school were airlifted to hospitals with serious or life-threatening injuries, Floyd said. Another roughly 25 people were being treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
Amid the investigation, officers located a second crime scene, a residence where two additional bodies were found, he said, adding that searches were ongoing to locate other potential victims.
The shooting was reported to the RCMP at about 1:20 p.m. MST Tuesday.
A Police Initiated Public Alert was issued as officers responded to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, where the crime scene was discovered. The alert was canceled at 5:45 p.m., the RCMP said in a statement.
Roughly 100 remaining students and staff were evacuated.
“We’re not in a place now to be able to understand why and what may have motivated this tragedy,” Floyd said.
“Our thoughts are with the families, loved ones and all those impacted by this tragic incident.”
Neither the deceased victims nor the suspected shooter have been publicly identified.
Floyd told reporters that authorities believe they have confirmed the shooter’s identity, but for privacy reasons and to protect the integrity of the investigation, the name was being withheld at this time.
The scene has been secured, he said.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was “devastated” by the shooting.
“I join Canadians in grieving with those whose lives have been changed irreversibly today, and in gratitude for the courage and selflessness of the first responders who risked their lives to protect their fellow citizens,” Carney said in an online statement.
“Our ability to come together in crisis is the best of our country — our empathy, our unity and our compassion for each other.”
Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree was coordinating the federal response to the shooting, the prime minister said.
Premier David Eby of British Columbia asked the residents of his province and Canadians nationwide “to wrap the people of Tumbler Ridge, to wrap these families with love, not just tonight, but tomorrow and into the future.”
“As British Columbians, I know that one of the things we do best is look after each other, and I’m asking British Columbians to look after the people of Tumbler Ridge tonight,” he said during a press conference.
“This is the kind of thing that feels like it happens in other places, and not close to home in a way that this feels like for many British Columbians and Canadians,” he added.
The incident ranks among the worst mass shootings in the history of a country where mass shootings are rare. Only the 2020 Nova Scotia shooting when 22 people were killed and Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique massacre of 14 female engineering students in December 1989 have a greater death toll.
In British Columbia, it is the deadliest mass shooting since 10 people, including the suspected gunman, were killed in what is now known as the 1996 Vernon massacre.
In April, 11 people were killed and more than 30 were injured when an SUV drove through a crowd at a Filipino festival in Vancouver. Kai-Ji Adam Low has been charged with the crime.
