OpenAI Ignored Alarms on Trans Shooter's Violent ChatGPT Fantasies—Months Later, 8 Dead in Massacre

justmindy | 8:50 PM on February 20, 2026

A trans man who went on a shooting spree in Canada last month had been talking to ChatGPT about his thoughts were so alarming, the company even considered contacting the police. Too bad they didn't. This tweet is referring to the killer as a 'she', but the shooter is actually a delusional male.

Months before Jesse Van Rootselaar became the suspect in the mass shooting that devastated a rural town in British Columbia, Canada, OpenAI considered alerting law enforcement about her interactions with its ChatGPT chatbot, the company said https://t.co/55NYoGQuAV
— WSJ Tech (@WSJTech) February 20, 2026

Months before Jesse Van Rootselaar became the suspect in the mass shooting that devastated a rural town in British Columbia, Canada, OpenAI considered alerting law enforcement about her interactions with its ChatGPT chatbot, the company said.
While using ChatGPT last June, Van Rootselaar described scenarios involving gun violence over the course of several days, according to people familiar with the matter.
Her posts, flagged by an automated review system, alarmed employees at OpenAI. Internally, about a dozen staffers debated whether to take action on Van Rootselaar’s posts. Some employees interpreted Van Rootselaar’s writings as an indication of potential real-world violence, and urged leaders to alert Canadian law enforcement about her behavior, the people familiar with the matter said.
OpenAI leaders ultimately decided not to contact authorities.
A spokeswoman for OpenAI said the company banned Van Rootselaar’s account but determined that her activity didn’t meet the criteria for reporting to law enforcement, which would have required that it constituted a credible and imminent risk of serious physical harm to others.
On Feb. 10, Van Rootselaar was found dead from what appeared to be a self-inflicted injury at the school scene of a mass shooting that killed eight people and left at least 25 injured. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police identified 18-year-old Van Rootselaar as the suspect.