Jesse Strang killed nine people in a mass shooting at a high school, CTV has reported
The shooter who killed nine people in Tumbler Ridge, Canada, has been identified as Jesse Strang, CTV has claimed. Police have not confirmed the report or commented on rumors that Strang was transgender.
A suspect described by police as a “female in a dress” fatally shot two people in a house and another seven people at a high school in the British Columbia town of Tumbler Ridge on Tuesday afternoon. The suspect, described in a later police briefing as a “gunperson,” injured 25 others before committing suicide by gunshot.
Canada’s CTV identified Strang on Wednesday. According to the broadcaster, the two bodies in the house have been identified as Strang’s mother and brother.
Canadian police have not confirmed the suspect’s name, age, or gender, beyond the initial description of a “female in a dress.”
Several hours before CTV’s report, Juno News, a right-wing outlet, claimed that it had been contacted by Strang’s uncle, who said that Jesse was transgender. Unconfirmed reports on social media link Strang to a Reddit account where the suspect purportedly expressed interest in firearms and transitioning to female at 15 years old.
The attack is the third-deadliest mass shooting in Canadian history. At least eight mass shootings in the US since 2018 have been carried out by men who identified as women. Most recently, 23-year-old Robert Westman, who had legally changed his name to ‘Robin’, shot two people dead and injured 30 others in an attack on a church in Minneapolis, Minnesota last August.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney canceled a planned trip to Germany in the wake of the shooting. In an address on Wednesday, he called the attack an act of “unheard-of cruelty,” adding “what happened has left our nation in shock and all of us in mourning.”
