Featured Image Credit: CTV News
Topics: Canada, Mark Carney, World News
Phoebe Tonks
A pair of shootings in Canada at a small town school and home have left nine people dead and over 25 injured, with the suspected shooter also having died in the attack.
Eight people, including the suspected shooter, were killed on Tuesday (February 10) at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in Tumbler Ridge, a town of about 2,400 people in British Columbia.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police also revealed that two of those injured in the shooting have been airlifted to hospital with life-threatening injuries.
Meanwhile, in addition to the school tragedy, two more people were killed at a residential property and are believed to have been connected to the incident, though police stated that they 'are not in a position to provide that definitively'.
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RCMP Superintendent Ken Floyd briefed reporters on the situation so far, which included the news that officers had identified the shooter, but declined to release a name or motive as the investigation remained ongoing, as he said: “We are not in a place to understand why or what may have motivated this tragedy.”
“As part of the initial response to the active shooting, police entered the school to locate the threat. During the search, officers located multiple victims. An individual believed to be the shooter was also found deceased with what appears to be a self‑inflicted injury,” RCMP said in a statement.
Following the tragedy, British Columbia Premier David Eby expressed his condolences to the families affected and said in a statement: “Our hearts are in Tumbler Ridge tonight with the families of those who have lost loved ones. Government will ensure every possible support for community members in the coming days, as we all try to come to terms with this unimaginable tragedy.”
Unlike the US, where school shootings are heartbreakingly common, they continue to remain a rarity in their Northern neighbours Canada.
Tuesday’s shootings were Canada’s deadliest rampage overall since 2020, when a gunman in Nova Scotia shot dead 13 people and started a series of fires that left another nine people dead.
In a bid to tackle mass shootings in the country, Canada’s government previously introduced gun control measures and recently extended this to a ban on all guns it considers assault weapons.
As a result of the tightened control measures, there have been just 4 major mass shootings in Canada since 2020. By comparison, in the same time period, the US has experienced 3,550.
So far, no details about the identity of the victims have been released, but messages of grief and sympathy have continued to pour out across the local community and Canada as a whole.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was devastated by the tragic loss of life, as he wrote on social media: "I join Canadians in grieving with those whose lives have been changed irreversibly today, and in gratitude for the courage and selflessness of the first responders who risked their lives to protect their fellow citizens.
"Our ability to come together in crisis is the best of our country - our empathy, our unity, and our compassion for each other."
His office also announced that he will cancel his planned trip to the Munich Security Conference as the country reels from the tragedy.