Tumbler Ridge School Shooting Spurs 30 New Lawsuits Against OpenAI

OpenAI is facing 30 new lawsuits over the Tumbler Ridge, B.C., school shooting, a major escalation in a legal fight over what the ChatGPT maker allegedly knew before the attack and what it chose not to do.

The new cases add to seven earlier lawsuits against OpenAI connected to the shooting. The latest plaintiffs include teachers, students and a principal who were at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School during the attack.

A wider circle of plaintiffs

The attack began at a residence and continued at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School. Eight victims were killed, and shooter Jesse Van Rootselaar died from a self-inflicted wound.

For those who were inside the school, the lawsuits are also a record of trauma. Teacher Deidre Rushlow, in a statement quoted by CTV News, described the lasting horror of the day.

“My colleagues and I are haunted by the memory of shielding children with our own bodies as our ears rang from the sound of continual gunshots and high-pitched screams,” she said.

The new plaintiffs are not simply alleging that OpenAI failed to stop the shooting. The complaints accuse the company of substantially assisting, or aiding and abetting, the attack.

Warnings alleged before attack

At the centre of the lawsuits is an allegation about warning signs from Van Rootselaar’s account.

The complaints allege OpenAI had warnings from the shooter’s account about gun-violence risks before the attack. According to the complaints, OpenAI safety staff recommended notifying Canadian law enforcement, but OpenAI leadership rejected that recommendation and did not report the account.

Instead, OpenAI deactivated Van Rootselaar’s account. The lawsuits allege she later regained access by creating another ChatGPT account.

Lawyer Jay Edelson, representing plaintiffs in the cases, framed the allegation bluntly in comments reported by The Straits Times.

“This is not someone typing into Google ‘Where can I buy a gun?’” Edelson said. “This is technology where the chatbot is helping plan murders.”

A more serious legal claim

The new complaints mark a shift in the allegations against OpenAI. Earlier cases over the shooting were already part of the company’s legal burden, but the new lawsuits go further by accusing OpenAI of aiding and abetting the shooting, rather than only failing to prevent it.

That distinction is central to how the plaintiffs are telling the story: they allege the company had warnings, had an internal recommendation to contact Canadian authorities, rejected that recommendation, and left Van Rootselaar able to return through another account.

OpenAI disputes key parts of that account.

OpenAI denies referral allegations

OpenAI says Van Rootselaar’s account activity did not meet its internal standard for an imminent and credible risk requiring a law-enforcement referral.

Jason Kwon, speaking for OpenAI, said the company’s safety decisions were not made casually.

“That judgment is not infallible, but it is always rooted in looking out for this balance for people,” Kwon told TechCrunch.

The complaints also allege that OpenAI chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane was involved in the decision not to contact authorities. OpenAI says Lehane was not involved in the referral decision.

“It is absolutely false to say Chris Lehane was involved with our original referral decision, or that our investigators report to him in any way,” Kwon said.

He also rejected the broader suggestion that OpenAI’s safety staff do not prioritize safety, saying it is “completely untrue to say that the people at the centre of these challenging decisions do not prioritise safety.”

Tumbler Ridge case deepens

The lawsuits leave two sharply different accounts facing each other.

The plaintiffs allege OpenAI had warnings tied to gun-violence risks, that its own safety staff recommended contacting Canadian law enforcement, and that leadership refused. OpenAI says the account activity did not meet the threshold for an imminent and credible risk and denies Lehane was part of the referral decision.

For Tumbler Ridge, the legal filings reopen questions tied to a devastating attack that began in a home and moved into a school. For OpenAI, the cases add a growing test of how its safety systems are judged when online warnings are alleged to precede real-world violence.

Source 1 | Source 2 | Source 3 | Source 4 | Source 5 | Source 6