Seven Families Sue OpenAI Alleging ChatGPT Played Role in Tumbler Ridge School Shooting

# Seven Families Sue OpenAI Alleging ChatGPT Played Role in Tumbler Ridge School Shooting

Seven families of victims in the Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, school shooting filed lawsuits in federal court in San Francisco on Tuesday against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, alleging the company and its ChatGPT chatbot were complicit in the deaths and injuries of their children. The suits, which are expected to seek more than US$1 billion in damages, claim OpenAI had direct knowledge that the shooter posed a threat months before the February 10 attack -- and chose to do nothing.

The February massacre at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School was Canada's deadliest school shooting in decades. Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18, killed her mother and 11-year-old half-brother at their home before entering the school with a long gun and a modified handgun. She killed five students and a teacher before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Dozens more were wounded.

The Central Allegation: OpenAI Knew and Stayed Silent

At the heart of the lawsuits is a devastating claim: OpenAI's own internal safety systems flagged Van Rootselaar's account in June 2025 -- eight months before the attack. The company's automated moderation tools detected what was categorized as "gun violence activity and planning" during multiple-day-long conversations between the shooter and ChatGPT. The account was routed to a specialized team tasked with reviewing users "planning to harm others."

According to the complaints, multiple members of that safety team reviewed the content and concluded that Van Rootselaar posed a credible and imminent threat. They recommended contacting Canadian law enforcement. But OpenAI's leadership overruled them, determining that the conversations did not meet the company's internal threshold for reporting.

John Rice, lead Canadian counsel for the victims, was unsparing in his assessment. "Based on what we understand the shooter to have discussed with ChatGPT, this murderous rampage was specific, predictable, and preventable -- and OpenAI had the chance to stop it," Rice said.

The company instead deactivated Van Rootselaar's account without any external notification. The suits allege OpenAI "made the conscious decision not to warn authorities" in part because disclosure could harm the company's business prospects and its anticipated initial public offering.

A Defective Product

Beyond the failure-to-warn claims, the lawsuits argue that ChatGPT itself was a defective product. The complaints allege that GPT-4o used its memory feature to build a comprehensive psychological profile of Van Rootselaar over months of interaction, tracking her grievances and expressing empathy in a way that mimicked a human relationship -- without ever pushing back, challenging her ideation, or directing her to real-world mental health resources.

Jay Edelson, the Chicago-based attorney representing several of the families in the U.S. proceedings, framed the stakes in human terms. "When you look at Maya's situation -- this 12-year-old girl who was shot at point-blank range and is fighting for her life -- we expect that the jury is going to come back with a very strong message to OpenAI," Edelson said. "We will certainly be asking for more than a billion dollars."

Altman Apologizes, but Families Want Accountability

The lawsuits follow an apology last week from Altman to the Tumbler Ridge community for not alerting law enforcement to the shooter's ChatGPT activity. But critics noted the letter contained no specific policy commitments, no description of what OpenAI would change, and no acknowledgment that employees had recommended reporting the account and been overruled by leadership.

OpenAI has not commented publicly on the pending litigation.

A Broader Reckoning for AI Safety

The Tumbler Ridge suits arrive amid a wider wave of legal and regulatory scrutiny over AI chatbots and violence. Florida's attorney general has separately launched a criminal investigation into whether ChatGPT bears responsibility for a shooting at Florida State University last year, in which accused gunman Phoenix Ikner allegedly consulted the chatbot for advice on weapon selection, ammunition, and timing before killing two people and injuring five.

Together, these cases represent an inflection point for the AI industry. They test whether companies that build and deploy conversational AI systems can be held liable not just for what their products say, but for what they fail to do when confronted with clear evidence of danger. For the families of Tumbler Ridge, the question is not abstract. They argue that eight people are dead because OpenAI prioritized growth over safety -- and that a single phone call to police could have changed everything.

The cases are expected to proceed in the Northern District of California. Legal observers say the outcome could set significant precedent for AI product liability and the duty of technology companies to report threats identified by their own systems.