Mother Jones documents Jesse Van Rootselaar’s exchanges with the chatbot — whose first account had been banned — which explained to her how to avoid being flagged again.
Mother Jones published an investigation in September 2026 into Van Rootselaar's conversations with ChatGPT in the months leading up to the Tumbler Ridge, B.C., shootings. On Feb. 10, 2026, she was still asking the assistant about the timing of the shootings "during school hours" and the timeline of high-profile U.S. shootings; the responses cited work published by the FBI as well as Columbine, Sandy Hook, Parkland, and Uvalde.
The most damning point concerns the circumvention of safeguards. A first account had indeed been banned, after exchanges evoking an attack on a real shopping mall named by name. The user opened a second one — which told her how to "never be reported again", presenting her requests as fictitious or hypothetical. She continued to use the tool until the day of the attack.
The February toll: his mother and eleven-year-old brother killed at home, then five students and a staff member shot dead at Tumbler Ridge High School, before his suicide. Sam Altman had written to the community in April 2026 to express his regret that the company had not alerted law enforcement about the banned account.
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