Family of Canada mass shooting victim sues OpenAI
Jesse Van Rootselaar killed her mother, brother, five young school children, a teacher and herself.
PHOTOGRAPH courtesy of Paige Taylor White / AFP
TORONTO (AFP) — The family of a girl gravely injured during a mass shooting in Canada is suing OpenAI over the company’s failure to notify police about the killer’s troubling activity on its ChatGPT chatbot, lawyers said Tuesday.
OpenAI had banned an account linked to Jesse Van Rootselaar in June 2025, eight months before the 18-year-old transgender woman killed eight people at her home and a school in the tiny British Columbia mining town of Tumbler Ridge.
The account was banned over concerns about usage linked to violent activity, but OpenAI has said it did not inform police because nothing pointed towards an imminent attack.
Lawyers representing the family of Maya Gebala, a 12-year-old who remains in hospital following the shooting, said in a statement that they were suing OpenAI over allegations of negligence.
“The purpose of this lawsuit is to learn the whole truth about how and why the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting happened, to impose accountability, to seek redress for harms and losses, and to help prevent another mass-shooting atrocity in Canada,” the firm of Rice, Parsons, Leoni and Elliot said.
It said the suit centers on “extremely serious, though unproven, allegations against the American technology firm.”
Canada summoned OpenAI executives to Ottawa last month to discuss its security protocols and British Columbia Premier David Eby has had direct talks with the company’s chief executive Sam Altman.
Late last month, OpenAI said that its current security protocols would have compelled the company to notify Canadian police about Van Rootselaar’s account.
It said it implemented various policy changes “several months ago,” including consulting “mental health, behavioral, and law enforcement experts” to identify when chatbot conversations amount to a credible risk.
Asked about the lawsuit, OpenAI told Agence France-Presse: “What happened in Tumbler Ridge was an unspeakable tragedy.”
“OpenAI remains committed to working with government and law enforcement officials to make meaningful changes that help prevent tragedies like this in the future,” a company spokesperson said in a statement
The law firm said “Maya has endured multiple emergency brain surgeries, other life-saving medical procedures, and severe infection. Slowly, Maya is stabilizing, but her long-term prognosis is unknown,” the statement said.