Canadian school shooter was 'addicted' to gore and violence web sites
- - Canadian school shooter was 'addicted' to gore and violence web sites
Michael Loria, USA TODAY February 14, 2026 at 4:59 AM
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A Canadian teen who killed eight people in one of the country’s worst mass shootings frequented the same gory websites that American mass shooters have been known to visit leading up to attacks in the U.S., investigators found.
Jesse Van Rootselaar opened fire on Feb. 10 at a home and a school in northeast British Columbia. The 18-year-old, who was born male and identified as a woman, left eight dead and dozens wounded before taking her own life. The attacks at Tumbler Ridge, about 700 miles north of Vancouver, are among the worst seen in America’s northern neighbor, where gun laws are stricter and mass shootings are a rarity by comparison.
The teen’s online activity "displays a fascination with violence and weapons," according to an Anti-Defamation League report shared on Feb. 12. The anti-hate group has a team dedicated to investigating hate speech online and mass shooters’ online history. Van Rootselaar espoused admiration online for other shooters and was active on WatchPeopleDie, a forum where users share images of torture, rape, beheadings and other violence.
The website has been a known destination for American school shooters, including in Wisconsin, Tennessee and Colorado.
People attend a vigil the day after a deadly mass shooting took place, in the town of Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, Canada on Feb. 11, 2026.
"It's time for people to understand the connective tissue between incidents of children killing children around the world — and that connective tissue is websites like WatchPeopleDie and other gore platforms," Oren Segal, the ADL’s senior vice president of Counter-Extremism and Intelligence, said to USA TODAY in a statement.
"These sites don't just desensitize young people to violence; they create toxic environments where extremist ideologies, including antisemitism, blend with graphic content, inspiring users to seek out more violent material and, in some cases, to commit violence themselves. It's a vicious cycle that puts impressionable youth at profound risk."
The ADL report provides the closest look yet at Van Rootselaar’s life online leading up to the shooting.
1 / 12Tumbler Ridge comes together after shooting shattered a small townPeople attend a vigil the day after a deadly mass shooting took place, in the town of Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, Canada on Feb. 11, 2026.What did she post online?
ADL investigators found the teen had an "extensive digital footprint" on platforms including YouTube, Reddit and the WatchPeopleDie (WPD) site.
Across platforms, she displayed a "fascination with violence and weapons, along with an interest in previous mass shooters," researchers said.
Van Rootselaar’s own posts on the WPD gore site included multiple photos of firearms and videos of her shooting them.
Her first comment on the forum was on a thread dedicated to footage of mass shootings. "I appreciate this post," she wrote.
On a similar thread, she wrote: "I love these first person perspective type videos, when the shooter records his or her own actions it’s always heat."
Who else was active on the site?
The teen’s activity on the violence-focused website, according to the ADL, included visiting the profile of another mass shooter who was once active on the website: Natalie Rupnow, who killed two students and injured six in December 2024 at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin. The 15-year-old died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Van Rootselaar and Rupnow are not the only mass shooters known to have been active on the website.
Solomon Henderson, a 17-year-old who killed a student and injured another before killing himself in January 2025 at Antioch High School in Tennessee, was a known user.
Henderson and Rupnow followed each other on the forum, and each made their attack about a year and a half after joining the website. It’s unclear how long Van Rootselaar was active.
Desmond Holly, a 16-year-old who critically wounded two students at Evergreen High School in suburban Denver in September 2025, was another known user. Holly also died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
'It doesn’t feel like a big deal,' shooter said of website
Van Rootselaar’s comments online showed that at points she considered trying to quit visiting the violent website and expected it would have some sort of effect on her but found it difficult to stay away.
"I've tried to stray [sic] away from watching this type of thing before cuz it really sucks me in and is a massive useless time dump," she wrote. Elsewhere she called the content "addictive," according to the ADL.
"To say it ‘doesn’t effect [sic] me is likely naive," she said in another post. But "it just doesn’t feel like a big deal."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Canadian school shooter was 'addicted' to gore and violence web sites
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