U.S. prosecutors charge Washington state resident with helping the Tumbler Ridge school shooter

U.S. federal prosecutors have charged a 30-year-old Washington state resident with conspiring with the 18-year-old who carried out February’s mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., alleging the defendant offered advice and money and agreed to livestream the attack. James Cody Bryant of Bellingham, Wash., was arrested Tuesday on a criminal complaint charging conspiracy to murder persons in a foreign country, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington said. The charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. The allegations have not been tested in court, and the office noted that a person is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

On Feb. 10, Jesse Van Rootselaar killed two people at her home, then drove to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, where she shot and killed five children aged 12 and 13 and an educational assistant, according to prosecutors. She used an improvised explosive device to damage the school, exchanged gunfire with police and died by suicide, they said. The Associated Press reported that the two people killed at the home were her mother and stepbrother. In a statement, the RCMP said eight victims lost their lives and “countless others continue to carry the impact of that day.”

According to the complaint, Bryant and Van Rootselaar were communicating over Discord no later than August 2025 about her plan to kill multiple people in Canada. Prosecutors allege Bryant agreed to record and broadcast a livestream of the killings, helped test the streaming equipment on several occasions, gave tactical advice and suggested which firearms to use, and sent money for items she wanted, including a lighter used to build the explosive device. Bryant also advised her to delete their messages and to use virtual private networks, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. CBC News reported that the complaint also describes Bryant sending money for a pair of shoes Van Rootselaar wanted to wear during the attack.

Prosecutors said Bryant tried at various times to talk Van Rootselaar out of the attack, but never contacted police and repeatedly assured her that would not happen. “I know I can like, save lives I guess but idk,” Bryant wrote in one message quoted in the complaint, AP reported. On the day of the shooting, after she had killed her family members, Van Rootselaar could not get the family car started, and Bryant gave advice on how to get the engine to turn over, the office said. “Even after Van Rootselaar had killed two family members, there was time to intervene before the school shooting,” it said.

W. Mike Herrington, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Seattle field office, said investigators cannot know whether the attack would have happened otherwise. “Without Bryant’s misplaced loyalty and willingness to operate the livestream, we don’t ultimately know if the shooter would have gone through with the crime,” he told reporters, according to NBC News. Officials said the livestream on Twitch lasted only about 20 seconds before it shut off, and Twitch said an account appearing to be Bryant’s was the only one that saw it, according to the complaint. The two met about three years earlier on Omegle, a now-defunct video chat site. Acting U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd called the charge “novel” for a case like this, AP reported.

The RCMP said it contacted the U.S. Department of Homeland Security within days of the shooting after receiving information from one of the online platforms the shooter used, and the FBI opened its investigation soon afterward; CBC reported the complaint says Discord voluntarily shared that information. B.C. investigators have completed and reviewed more than 90 interview statements from students, educators and first responders, the force said, adding that its criminal investigation continues and “the possibility of further charges being pursued in Canada remains under active consideration.” Floyd said investigators are also examining whether others in western Washington knew about the attack, The Seattle Times reported.

Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree called the allegations devastating. “Nothing will bring back the eight lives that were devastated back in February, but it is important that those who are responsible are held to account,” he told reporters in Ottawa, according to AP. He said it was too soon to say whether Bryant could also face charges in Canada. Bob Zimmer, the MP who represents Tumbler Ridge, said the victims deserve answers. “It is deeply troubling, the allegations that this individual coached the shooter all throughout the process in an effort to livestream the event,” he said.

Bryant made a first appearance in federal court in Seattle on Tuesday afternoon. A preliminary hearing is set for Oct. 20, and the U.S. government has asked that Bryant be held without bail, with a detention hearing scheduled for next Tuesday, CBC reported. The federal public defender’s office, which represents Bryant, did not immediately respond to AP’s request for comment. The shooting has also led to lawsuits against OpenAI: British Columbia sued the ChatGPT maker in September, and families of victims are suing it in U.S. federal court, according to The Seattle Times and AP.

Sources: U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Washington (Oct. 6, 2026); BC RCMP statement (Oct. 6, 2026); The Associated Press; CBC News; NBC News; The Seattle Times.