OpenAI faces 37 lawsuits over alleged failure to warn police before Canadian mass shooting

Eight people are dead, roughly 37 lawsuits are filed in U.S. federal court, and OpenAI is at the center of a legal storm that may redefine what tech companies owe the public when their own systems raise red flags about a user. The shooting happened on February 10, 2026, in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia. Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18 at the time, killed eight people, including family members and victims connected to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, and injured approximately 25 to 27 others. What OpenAI allegedly knew and didn’t do According to the lawsuits, OpenAI’s own automated safety system flagged Van Rootselaar’s ChatGPT conversations about gun violence back in June 2025, roughly eight months before the shooting. The company’s internal safety team reportedly recommended notifying the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. OpenAI allegedly did not make that call. Instead, the company deactivated Van Rootselaar’s account without contacting Canadian law enforcement. Plaintiffs say Van Rootselaar subsequently recreated his account, allowing the conversations to continue. The decision not to alert authorities, despite an internal recommendation to do so, is the core of the negligence claims. Th...