Family of BC School Shooting Survivor Sues OpenAI, Claims ChatGPT Helped Plan Attack
A landmark lawsuit filed in British Columbia alleges that OpenAI’s ChatGPT artificial intelligence model helped an 18-year-old shooter plan a mass casualty event at a rural Canadian school—despite nearly a dozen company employees reportedly flagging the threat as imminent months before the attack.
The civil claim, submitted Monday in B.C. Supreme Court on behalf of 12-year-old survivor Maya Gebala, her sister, and mother, seeks compensation and punitive damages from the San Francisco-based tech giant. The case centers on the Feb. 10, 2026, shooting at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, where Jesse Van Rootselaar killed eight people, including family members and students, before taking her own life.
Maya Gebala was shot three times at close range—struck in the neck and head just above her left eye—while attempting to lock the library door to protect fellow students. The lawsuit states she suffered catastrophic brain damage and permanent cognitive and physical disability. She remains at BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver, where her breathing tube was removed March 7.
The complaint paints a damning picture of OpenAI’s internal operations. It claims approximately 12 employees identified what they termed “Gun Violence ChatGPT Posts” as indicating an imminent risk of serious harm and recommended contacting Canadian law enforcement. Instead, leadership “rebuffed their employees’ request” and merely banned Van Rootselaar’s first account in June 2025, the suit alleges.
“Concerns regarding the Gun Violence ChatGPT Posts were subsequently escalated to leadership, which chose to ban the Shooter’s first OpenAI account [and] rebuffed their employees’ request to contact Canadian law enforcement.”
OpenAI has stated that the shooter’s activity did not meet its threshold for police referral, which requires indication of “imminent and credible risk of serious physical harm to others.” The company has not yet been served with the lawsuit and has not responded to the allegations.
The lawsuit claims OpenAI failed to detect a second ChatGPT account Van Rootselaar created after her first was banned, which she allegedly used to continue planning violent scenarios. The company discovered the second account only after the mass shooting.
The complaint also takes aim at ChatGPT’s design, alleging the GPT-4o model released in spring 2025 was “intentionally designed to foster psychological dependency” through “heightened sycophancy to mirror and affirm user emotions.” The suit accuses OpenAI of “knowingly and intentionally permitting ChatGPT to provide pseudo-psychological treatment” to the shooter.
Van Rootselaar was under 18 when she created her ChatGPT account, yet OpenAI took no steps to verify her age or obtain parental consent as required by company policy.
On Feb. 26, OpenAI announced it would enhance its police referral and repeat offender detection practices following the tragedy. British Columbia Premier David Eby said last week that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is “prepared to apologize” to the Tumbler Ridge community.
The Gebala family seeks to uncover the truth about how the shooting happened, establish accountability, and help prevent future mass shootings. OpenAI reported US$20 billion in revenue for 2025.
