B.C. school shooting ‘one of the worst mass shootings’ in Canada, minister says

B.C.’s Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General says people across the province are standing with the small community of Tumbler Ridge.

“The people of Tumbler Ridge remain in a state of crisis following one of the worst mass shootings in our province’s and country’s history,” Nina Krieger said.

“This is a devastating day for close knit community, and the loss being felt is profound. There are truly no words.”

On Tuesday, nine people were killed in the community in northeastern B.C. in a mass shooting. The suspected shooter was found dead, two people were seriously injured and 25 others were injured.

The community of 2,000 people was placed under lockdown around 1:20 p.m. after news came in of an active shooter at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, RCMP said.

When officers entered the school on Tuesday afternoon, they found six victims dead, RCMP confirmed. Two more victims were found at another location, while another victim died on the way to hospital.

An individual believed to be the shooter was also found dead with what appeared to be a self‑inflicted injury.

“I would like to thank the RCMP officers who were on the scene within two minutes of receiving the call,” Krieger said.

“That speed and professionalism saved lives today. I would also like to thank paramedics, firefighters, health care workers, victim services staff and all first responders who acted immediately to support this community in an unimaginable, unimaginably horrific moment.”

She added that shock waves will be felt in the community for years to come.

Students were locked down at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and Elementary School, which will remain closed for the rest of the week, the district confirmed.

As a mother, I’m holding the families who lost loved ones close in my heart, as well as the many of those injured,” Krieger added.

“For their families, the nightmare has not yet ended. We will stand with the community in the days and weeks and months ahead, with compassion, with action, and with a commitment to supporting healing for as long as it takes. We will ensure that every possible support is available for the community in the coming days.”

B.C. Premier David Eby also said on Tuesday night that this is a devastating and unimaginable tragedy.

“We can’t imagine what the community is going through, but I know it’s causing us all to hug our kids a little bit tighter tonight,” he said.

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“I’d like to take this opportunity to ask British Columbians, to ask all Canadians to wrap the people of Tumbler Ridge, wrap these families with love, not just tonight, but tomorrow and into the future. This is something that will reverberate for years to come. 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.”

Tuesday’s shooting was the deadliest attack connected to a Canadian school in nearly 40 years.

More than two dozen people were shot during the Ecole Polytechnique massacre in Montreal on Dec. 6, 1989, killing 14 women before the gunman took his own life.

Another shooting in Montreal in 2006 left one person dead at Dawson College and 20 others injured after a man opened fire with a semi-automatic weapon. The shooter was killed in a police gunfight.

The last time such deadly violence was carried out against multiple people in the halls of a Canadian school was a decade ago in northern Saskatchewan.

On Jan. 22, 2016, four people were killed and seven others injured in a shooting spree in the remote Dene community of La Loche. A student, who was 17 at the time, pleaded guilty to charges of first-degree murder, second-degree murder and attempted murder.

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