British Columbia sues OpenAI for failure to warn before shooting

British Columbia filed a lawsuit in California on Monday against OpenAI , alleging it could have used ChatGPT logs to warn police and avert a mass shooting in the Canadian province earlier this year.

On Feb. 10, suspect Jesse Van Rootselaar allegedly killed five students and a teacher at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in northern B.C., as well as her mother, half-brother and finally herself.

Van Rootselaar used ChatGPT before the massacre, which was one of Canada’s worst-ever shootings.

Breaking business news, incisive views, must-reads and market signals. Weekdays by 9 a.m.

A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.

OpenAI internally flagged and banned one of Van Rootselaar’s accounts for concerning activity in 2025, but didn’t escalate a warning to police. The company later disclosed Van Rootselaar also had a second account that wasn’t detected or stopped .

B.C.’s lawsuit hinges on OpenAI staffers’ decision not to notify Canadian authorities.

The filing says it seeks to hold the company “accountable for designing a dangerous product, distributing it to every home with internet access, ignoring the warnings of their own safety team, refusing to notify authorities when they knew the shooter was planning gun violence, inviting the shooter back onto the platform after deactivating the shooter’s account, and choosing corporate self-interest over the lives of children.”

B.C. wants a jury trial and seeks compensation for the harm inflicted, damages incurred and ongoing, and “injunctive relief to ensure that this tragedy does not happen again,” the filing said.

“One telephone call to the RCMP could have prevented the tragedy,” the document added, referring to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Representatives for OpenAI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.