US authorities have arrested a 30-year-old man from western Washington state on suspicion of helping plan a mass school shooting in Canada in February, adding a human accomplice to a case that had already raised questions about the role of artificial intelligence. The US Department of Justice said on Tuesday that James Codey Bryant has been detained on a charge of conspiracy to murder persons in a foreign country.
The attack took place in Tumbler Ridge, a small town in the province of British Columbia in western Canada. Police say 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar first killed her mother and half-brother at home, then went to her former secondary school, where she killed five children and a teacher. Around 25 others were wounded, and she took her own life. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has said it was the second-deadliest school shooting in Canadian history. Van Rootselaar had a history of mental health problems.
Prosecutors allege that Bryant and Van Rootselaar met about three years earlier on Omegle, a now-defunct anonymous chat service, and were in near-daily contact in the final six months. According to the indictment, Bryant offered technical advice and tips on how to maximise the impact of an attack, and sent roughly $100 for shoes and about $15 for a lighter. Court documents reviewed by CBC say he urged her to find a way to delete their messages and suggested a VPN to avoid detection for posting a shooting video online. Authorities say he agreed to livestream the attack, and that after Van Rootselaar could not start her car, he told her how to get the engine running. A US official said police were unsure she would have carried out the attack without that livestream promise. Investigators say there is no sign the two ever met in person.
Authorities also said Bryant tried several times to talk Van Rootselaar out of the attack. When she worried he might report her, he reportedly said he would not, and he never contacted police. Bryant will be prosecuted in the US as a US citizen following an FBI investigation, and the agency says it will keep working with Canadian authorities. It was not clear whether he has a lawyer.
The case adds to scrutiny of OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. It was already known that Van Rootselaar used the chatbot to plan the attack. OpenAI's safety team reportedly flagged her conversations about gun violence internally but did not alert police; it closed her account, though she opened a second one. Victims' families and the province of British Columbia have sued OpenAI and its chief executive, Sam Altman, arguing the company could have helped prevent the shooting by alerting authorities.
The arrest shows that the planning involved both an AI tool and a human contact who knew of the plan, raising questions about when private online conversations about violence should be reported.