Jesse Strang Identified as 17-Year-Old Shooter in Tumbler Ridge Massacre

In the sleepy mountain town of Tumbler Ridge, B.C., with its roughly 2,400 folks nestled in the Rockies, an emergency alert shattered the calm around 1:20 p.m. Mountain Time on February 10, 2026. Word spread fast about an active shooter at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, and cops swarmed the place.

By the end, ten people were gone, including the shooter, and somewhere between 25 and 27 others got hurt. A couple of the injured were choppered out in rough shape.

They found six bodies inside the school itself. Two more turned up dead at a house nearby that was linked to the scene. And one poor soul didn’t make it during the ride to the hospital.

The shooter took their own life with a gunshot. The whole area stayed locked down for about four hours until the authorities gave the all-clear.

The RCMP’s handling the investigation, and so far, no one’s pinned down a motive.

Kids holed up in classrooms, shoving desks against doors whatever they could do. One student who made it out told CTV News it was like a nightmare you couldn’t wake up from, just pure terror.

The school’s got grades 7 to 12, maybe 175 kids total. In a spot this small, it’s like everyone’s family got hit.

Prime Minister Mark Carney called it heartbreaking in his statement, scrapped some overseas trips to deal with this mess at home.

B.C. Premier David Eby said the community’s in pieces, just gutted.

Public Safety Minister Nina Krieger was there for the briefings, talking up support for the families and survivors.

Relatives came forward to name the suspect. The uncle, Russell G. Strang, told outlets like Juno News and the Western Standard it was his nephew, Jesse “Jess” Strang.

Locals like Liam Irving and Juan van Heerden remembered him as a quiet type, into hunting and firearms.

He had a YouTube channel and Reddit profile that got scrubbed, but folks saw posts about guns and some transgender pride stuff. Family says he started identifying as trans back around 2023.

Cops first put out a description of a female suspect in a dress with brown hair.

What’s solid info versus the online buzz?

Officials haven’t officially named the suspect yet something about privacy and the investigation still rolling.

But a bunch of news sources are going with 18-year-old Jesse “Jess” Strang, based on what the family said.

Social media’s full of junk, like claims of 35 shot or the shooter being 17.

Stick to the facts: 10 dead, 25-27 injured.

Some posts blew it up as the worst in Canadian history, but nah that’s still the 1989 École Polytechnique tragedy with 14 killed.

For Americans reading this, it hits like Parkland or Uvalde all over again. But up here, these things are rarer thanks to tighter gun rules background checks, bans on assault weapons beefed up after that 2020 Nova Scotia rampage that took 22 lives.

This is Canada’s bloodiest school shooting since ’89. Now everyone’s talking mental health in remote spots and how easy it is to get guns, though no extremism links so far.

Commentators point out how Canada’s stricter setup shows the difference from the U.S., where this stuff happens way more. Like the AP said, being rural meant backups took longer, but the first responders held it down.

The town’s reeling tight community, school like one big family with 160-200 kids. Those barricades saved lives but left scars. Why’d it happen? Could it have been stopped? Help’s coming in, but it’ll be a long road to patch things up.