A popular online gaming platform says it removed a user account belonging to the Tumbler Ridge, B.C., shooter, which was used to create and share a shopping mall massacre simulation.
A statement from the platform Roblox says the company is “committed to fully supporting law enforcement in their investigation” into the shootings Tuesday that left nine people dead, including the 18-year-old suspect, Jesse Van Rootselaar.
“We have removed the user account connected to this horrifying incident as well as any content associated with the suspect,” a Roblox spokesperson said.
The account and the content it created were pulled from the gaming site on Feb. 11, one day after the shooter killed two family members at home and then travelled to a nearby school where five children and one educator were gunned down.
Roblox, which describes itself online as “the ultimate virtual universe” where users can “be anything you can imagine,” tells CTV News the mall massacre simulation was not widely available and could only be accessed by downloading a separate app for coders and developers.
“Because of this, the experience had only seven visits,” the spokesperson said.
Videos of the mall shooting simulation that have been shared online depict a character running through a mall and using various weapons to shoot other characters.
The simulation is part of a larger picture of Van Rootselaar’s apparently troubled life, which included a “nomadic lifestyle” as a young child, and multiple RCMP visits to the family home in the leadup to the real-life massacre.
Van Rootselaar was assigned male at birth but began to transition to female six years ago, later dropping out of school, according to investigators.
The shooter’s father said Thursday that he was “estranged” from Jesse and was denied involvement in the family’s life “from the beginning.”
“While that distance is the reality of our relationship, it does not lessen the heartbreak I feel for the pain that has been caused to innocent people and to the town we call home,” Justin Van Rootselaar said in a statement.
“As the biological father of the individual responsible, I carry a sorrow that is difficult to put into words.”
Police have said they frequently attended Van Rootselaar’s home, which she shared with her 39-year-old mother Jennifer Jacobs and 11-year-old half-brother Emmett Jacobs, for mental health complaints.
Both family members were killed in the attack, as were 12-year-old Tumbler Ridge Secondary School students Kylie Smith, Zoey Benoit, Ticaria Lampert and Abel Mwansa Jr., and 13-year-old Ezekiel Schofield. Approximately 25 others were injured at the school, according to police.
Van Rootselaar had a firearms licence that expired in 2024. Police had previously seized guns from the family home but they were later returned, the RCMP confirmed at a news conference Wednesday.
Mounties told the news conference that two guns—a long gun and a modified handgun—were recovered following the shootings.
Roblox said it encourages users to report “inappropriate content” on the platform so administrators can assess it for policy violations and “share with law enforcement as appropriate.”