UPDATE: Law firm provides update on Tumbler Ridge family pursuing civil claims against Open AI

VANCOUVER — An update has been provided by the law firm representing plaintiffs in a claim related to the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting filed in Vancouver's BC Supreme Court on Monday.The claim alleges that OpenAI was aware of the shooter's use of ChatGPT to plan violent scenarios, including a "mass casualty event," but failed to alert authorities despite internal flagging, review, and multiple reports that OpenAI staff debated acting on the suspect's flagged posts months before the attack but chose not after deeming the threat not "imminent."The plaintiffs in the civil claim against OpenAI related to the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting are Cia Edmonds, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of herself and her two daughters, including Maya Gebala who was critically injured during the tragedy after being shot three times while attempting to protect her fellow classmates.Maya's mother has been providing regular updates on her condition and a GoFundMe setup to assist the family with medical and other expenses is approaching $500,000 in donations..According to the court document, OpenAI’s ChatGTP artificial intelligence model is equipped with a real-time monitoring system that “analyzes every user's messages and assigns a probability score across categories including self-harm, violence, and sexual content.”The system's back-channel is designed to examine patterns of “users in crisis,” meant to detect any increasing frequency of violent content and behavioural patterns, the suit claims.The March 9 notice of claim registered in Vancouver's BC Supreme Court further claims that ChatGPT equipped the shooter with information, guidance and assistance to plan a mass casualty event like the Tumbler Ridge shooting. That included informing the shooter, Jesse Van Rootselaar (also known as Jesse Strang), on methods on how to carry out a mass casualty event, the types of weapons to be used, and describing precedents from other mass casualty events or historical acts of violence.As reported by multiple outlets, that internal monitoring system flagged the shooter's account months ahead of the Tumbler Ridge tragedy and debated acting on the suspect's flagged posts months before the attack. That prompted a human review, including around 12 employees who identified the posts as indicating a "risk of serious harm to others” and that Canadian law enforcement should be informed.“Concerns regarding the Gun Violence ChatGPT Posts were subsequently escalated to leadership of the OpenAl Defendants with a request to inform Canadian law enforcement,” the lawsuit alleges, saying those concerns were rebuffed.In a public communication released through their legal representatives at Rice Parsons Leoni & Elliott LLP, the firm representing the family emphasized compassion for the community while outlining potential legal avenues and anticipated challenges or limitations with the civil suit.The firm specifically noted limitations under British Columbia's Family Compensation Act, which generally restricts wrongful death claims to dependents of a "provider" family member—meaning estates of children who were killed often cannot pursue such actions, as minors are rarely financial providers.However, the firm identified viable civil claims for certain individuals harmed directly or indirectly by the event, with the Tumbler Ridge tragedy holding the potential to establish new legal precedents.Those individuals who could be eligible for compensation, according to the firm, might include any surviving child or adult who was physically injured in the shooting, any surviving adult who witnessed the shooting, any surviving child who witnessed the shooting or lost a sibling in the shooting, and any parent of a child who was killed or physically injured in the shooting.The firm, which will take no up front-fees for its work in the case but would be eligible for 30% of any successful recoveries, subject to court approval in the case of minors, stressed in their letter that claims for more distant loved ones would likely face significant hurdles due to case law limiting duties of care.BC Premier David Eby has publicly placed at least some of the blame for the Tumbler Ridge tragedy on OpenAI, expressing deep frustration that the company did not do more to prevent the February 10 mass shooting..In late February, Eby stated that, from the outside, it appeared OpenAI "had the opportunity to prevent this tragedy" after internally banning the shooter's ChatGPT account in June 2025 for policy violations related to violent content, but only alerting the RCMP after the attack occurred and the shooter's identity became public. The premier described himself as "quite angry" about the missed chance to intervene earlier.

UPDATE: Law firm provides update on Tumbler Ridge family pursuing civil claims against Open AI

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