A remote Canadian community is facing the aftermath of a mass shooting that left 9 dead

Tumblr Ridge, British Columbia – Mourners in a remote Canadian town are building a memorial of flowers, lights and stuffed animals, as a community copes with a mass shooting that left eight people dead, most of them children, as well as an 18-year-old shooter who died from self-inflicted wounds.

Braving the cold and grief, young children, teens, parents and grandparents gathered for a vigil the day after Tuesday’s killing in British Columbia’s Tumblr Ridge, with the city’s mayor telling mourners: “It’s okay to cry.”

Mayor Darrell Krakoka said late Wednesday that the town is “one big family,” and encouraged people to reach out and support each other, especially the families of those who died in the attack. He said the community must support the victims’ families “forever,” not just in the coming days and weeks.

The suspect in a school shooting in Canada was an 18-year-old girl with a history of police visits to her home to check on her mental health, authorities said.

Jesse Van Rotselaar was found dead from apparent self-inflicted injuries after the attack at a school in the small mountain community of Tumbler Ridge, police said.

RCMP Deputy Commissioner Dwayne MacDonald said Van Rotselaar first killed her mother and half-brother at the family home before attacking the nearby school. He said she had a history of mental health contacts with police.

The motive was unclear.

The town of 2,700 is located in the Canadian Rockies, more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) northeast of Vancouver, near the provincial border with… Alberta.

Police said the victims included a 39-year-old teacher and five students between 12 and 13 years old.

The home killings happened first, MacDonald said. A young family member at the home went to a neighbor, who called the police. The bodies of the suspect’s mother, who was also 39 years old, and her 11-year-old half-brother were found in the house.

MacDonald believes that at the school, one victim was found in the stairs while the rest were found in the library. He added that the suspect is not related to any of the victims at the school.

“There is no information at this point that anyone has been specifically targeted,” MacDonald said.

Police found a long gun and a modified pistol. Officers arrived at the school two minutes after the initial call, McDonald said. When they arrived, gunshots were fired in their direction.

“Parents, grandparents, sisters and brothers will wake up on Tumbler Ridge without someone they love,” an emotional Prime Minister Mark Carney said upon his arrival in Parliament. “The nation mourns, and Canada stands with you.”

The attack was the deadliest in Canada since 2020, when a gunman entered Nova Scotia killed 13 people They set fires that left nine others dead.

Carney said flags on government buildings would be flown at half-mast for seven days, adding: “We will get through this.”

Shelly Quist said her neighbor across the street lost her 12-year-old daughter. “We heard his mother. She was in the street crying. She wanted her son’s body,” Quist said.

Quest said her 17-year-old son, Darian, remained locked in school for more than two hours. The county government’s website lists Tumbler Ridge High School as having 175 students in grades seven through 12.

“I think the seventh and eighth grades were upstairs in the library, and that’s where the shooter went,” she said. Her son was in the library just 15 minutes before the attack.

Quist was working at the hospital down the street when the shooting started.

She said: “I was about to rush to school, but my co-worker prevented me from doing so. After that, I was able to call Darian by phone to find out that he was okay.”

Darian Quist said he knew the attack was real when the principal descended into the halls and ordered the doors locked. He said fellow students sent him pictures of blood while he was locked in the classroom.

“We used the office to lock the doors,” he said.

School shootings are rare in Canada, which has… Strict gun control laws. The government has responded to previous mass shootings with gun control measures, including… Recently expanded Ban all weapons you consider to be offensive weapons.

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Associated Press correspondent Rob Gillis in Toronto contributed to this report.