A 12-year-old girl has been identified as one of the five students who were gunned down in Canada’s second-deadliest school shooting as the gunman’s dark history comes to light.
Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18, opened fire in the library at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in British Columbia on Tuesday afternoon after killing his mother, Jennifer, and brother, Emmett, at their home, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have said.
Kylie Smith, 12, was killed in the rampage, alongside two other girls and two boys, as well as an unidentified female teacher. More than two dozen others were also injured in the mass shooting.
Lance Younge described his daughter Kylie as the ‘light of their family while speaking to CTV.
‘She was just a beautiful soul. She loves art and anime. She wanted to go to school in Toronto and we just love her so much,’ he said. ‘She never hurt a soul.’
An online fundraiser also describes Kylie as a ‘beautiful, kind, innocent soul.’
Questions now remain about what may have drove Van Rootselaar to commit the heinous crime, as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police revealed firearms were confiscated from the boy’s home – but then returned.
But the teenage, who began identifying as female at the age of 12, has had a series of mental health issues in the past that officers responded to, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.
He even stopped attending school four years ago at the age of 14 and had to be ‘apprehended for assessment’ under the country’s mental health act in at least one incident.
Kylie Smith, 12, (pictured) was one of five students killed when Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18, opened fire at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in British Columbia on Tuesday afternoon
Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18, was seen happily gripping a rifle
Children were led out of the school after the shooting as authorities attended the scene
‘Police have attended that residence in the past, approximately a couple of years ago, where firearms were seized under the Criminal Code,’ said Dwayne McDonald, Deputy Commissioner of British Columbia RCMP.
‘I can say that at a later point in time, the lawful owner of those firearms petitioned for those firearms to be returned, and they were.’
Van Rootselaar’s mother, Jennifer, did not have a valid license for firearms at the time of her death.
Those who knew Van Rootselaar said the gunman was a ‘quiet kid’ who was often seen ‘sitting by himself in the corner.’
Amid the questions surrounding the shooting, though, Younge said he wants the public to focus on the victims – and not the shooter.
‘Let’s stop giving this psychopath the recognition, because these kids were lost before they got to become teenagers,’ he pleaded with CTV.
‘Let’s put these pictures up, remember them and not this murderer.’
Smith was remembered as the ‘light of the family’ following her untimely death
Smith (pictured) had dreamed of going to school in Toronto, and enjoyed art and anime, her father said
The distraught father told how he only heard from Kylie’s 15-year-old brother when Van Rootselaar started shooting at the school Tuesday afternoon.
Ethan had been hiding in a utility closet at around 3pm local time and wanted to tell his family that he loved them.
But Younge did not know where Kylie was.
The last time he saw her, he said, was when she and Ethan entered school that morning.
‘I soaked in that moment watching them walk in the door together, for whatever reason,’ he recounted. ‘I didn’t know it would be the last time.’
Tumbler Ridge Secondary School has fewer than 175 student, and Younge said his family knows the victims all personally.
‘They’re amazing kids,’ he said. ‘All these families know each other, they grew up together.’
‘Hold your kids tight, tell them you love them every day,’ the heartbroken father then advised, warning: ‘You never know, you never know.’
Van Rootselaar’s motive for the shooting remains unclear
As the family now struggles to accept the tragedy, they are raising money for Kylie’s funeral and any associated travel costs.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
