The web exercise of the 18-year-old behind the deadly shooting inside a Canadian highschool final week revealed an curiosity in firearms, mass violence and a historical past of consuming violent “gore” content material, based on knowledgeable evaluation.
The shooter, recognized as Jesse Van Rootselaar, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, hung out in darkish corners of the web, posting about her struggles with substance use and psychological well being. Van Rootselaar referred to gore content material as “addictive” in posts shared with CBS Information by analysts on the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group that works towards options to fight extremism.
She was lively on the web site WatchPeopleDie, which hosts materials portraying graphic violence towards individuals and animals. The location has change into a standard thread between perpetrators of mass violence, CBS Information has beforehand reported, with a number of different college shooters frequenting the positioning. Cody Zoschak, a senior supervisor on the institute, advised CBS Information that Van Rootselaar’s digital footprint revealed a go to to the WatchPeopleDie web page of 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow, who shot and killed a scholar and a trainer at a faculty in Wisconsin in 2024.
Zoschak mentioned these on-line communities can exacerbate typical teenage feelings like loneliness and desperation. Within the digital period, teenagers feeling remoted can choose into on-line areas the place they could obtain validation from strangers, as a substitute of looking for assist inside their communities. However these areas generally is a harmful echo chamber with ill-intentioned strangers, he mentioned.
“The worst affect you might have was the worst child in your college. Now, the worst affect you possibly can have is the worst particular person on the web,” Zoschak mentioned. “There is a large distinction within the diploma between these two.”
By evaluating social media profile components and usernames and cross-referencing pictures and content material posted on-line, ISD analysts have been in a position to determine accounts related to Van Rootselaar and pinpoint when the shooter’s on-line exercise started to take a troubling flip.
Zoschak mentioned ISD was in a position to hint Van Rootselaar’s exercise throughout varied on-line accounts spanning from 2019, when the shooter would have been round 12. Posts started with discussions about video video games, after which, in 2021, there was a submit with a photograph of a gun that Van Rootselaar claimed to personal. Round 2023, Van Rootselaar started posting about drug use and psychological well being struggles. Zoschak mentioned Van Rootselaar had a yr of attainable inactivity in 2024, with no traceable posts. Then, about 5 months in the past, Van Rootselaar created an account on WatchPeopleDie, which revealed feedback made on dozens of gore posts.
As well as, unbiased media firm 404 Media just lately reported on a mass taking pictures simulation recreation created on Roblox that on-line sleuths linked again to Van Rootselaar. It was not instantly clear when that simulation was created.
“We’ve eliminated the consumer account related to this horrifying incident in addition to any content material related to the suspect,” Roblox mentioned in an announcement to CBS Information. “We’re dedicated to totally supporting regulation enforcement of their investigation.”
The sport was in a separate app known as Roblox Studio, which may solely be accessed by coders and builders, so the sport solely had seven visits. However some of these video games and different grim content have made their means onto the principle platform earlier than with recreation video games of the varsity shootings at Columbine, Uvalde and Parkland, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
As Van Rootselaar descended into violent content material on-line, psychological well being issues additionally unfolded at dwelling, with police responding to psychological well being calls at Van Rootselaar’s household residence during the last a number of years.
Throughout a information convention final week, police mentioned Van Rootselaar was apprehended on totally different events underneath the Psychological Well being Act, which in British Columbia permits police to apprehend somebody experiencing a psychological well being disaster that will want therapy.
Six individuals have been killed at Tumbler Ridge Secondary College — most of them youthful than 13. Van Rootselaar’s 11-year-old brother and mom have been additionally discovered lifeless at a residence. The taking pictures at Tumbler Ridge Secondary College was Canada’s deadliest since 1989, when 25-year-old Marc Lepine shot and killed 14 girls at Montreal’s École Polytechnique earlier than taking his personal life.
