A resident from Washington State in the United States has been charged with prior knowledge of a deadly school shooting plot in Canada but failed to report it to the authorities. The individual is also accused of providing funding, assisting in the dissemination of the attack livestream video, and teaching the gunman how to delete online messages to conceal the plan. A federal judge in the United States ordered on Tuesday (October 13) to continue detaining the individual pending trial.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) formally arrested and charged Melody Bryant (legally known as James Cody Bryant), accusing him of the offense of “Conspiracy to Murder Persons in a Foreign Country.” Bryant, who hails from Bellingham, Washington, is 30 years old and identifies as female.
Subsequently, a federal grand jury issued a formal indictment against Bryant, with the maximum penalty for the charge being life imprisonment.
Investigators allege that Bryant had been in contact with the 18-year-old gunman, Jesse Van Rootselaar, and assisted in preparing for the attack. Van Rootselaar was charged with carrying out a shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, Canada in February of this year, resulting in the deaths of 8 people and injuries to 27 others.
During a detention hearing held at the Seattle federal courthouse on Tuesday, Judge Mary Alice Theiler rejected the defense’s request for bail. The judge ruled that Bryant posed a serious danger to the community and was at risk of fleeing, and even implementing internet restrictions could not guarantee public safety. Therefore, the judge ordered Bryant to remain detained without bail.
Bryant had been in frequent contact with the gunman through Discord since August 2025, providing tactical advice on maximizing casualties, weapons recommendations, teaching how to use VPNs to conceal activities, as well as making a $100 money transfer for the purchase of tactical shoes for the attack, and a $15 purchase for a lighter to make explosive devices.
Bryant and the gunman had tested livestream equipment together and intentionally stayed up late after finishing night shifts, agreeing to assist in recording and spreading the livestream video of the massacre online when the attack occurred (the Twitch live feed lasted about 20 seconds).
Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Greenberg argued that Bryant “maintained contact with an individual planning a mass murder in British Columbia on a daily basis for several months” without taking action to stop it. The prosecution believes that these circumstances are sufficient to support the continued detention of the defendant.
Bryant’s appointed public defender, Greg Murphy, requested the court to grant bail for the defendant before trial. He stated that the defense had not obtained sufficient evidence to fully assess the government’s charges.
Murphy also pointed out that federal investigators had questioned Bryant a few days after the shooting but did not detain him at that time. Bryant had been free to move around for about 7 months. Even though the government formally charged him on October 2, he was not detained until 4 days later.
Based on this, Murphy questioned why the government deemed it necessary to continue detaining Bryant since he had not been proven to pose a new danger to the community during that period.
However, the judge ultimately did not accept the defense’s bail argument and ordered Bryant to remain detained.
The police reported that Van Rootselaar first killed his mother and stepbrother at home before launching the attack at a nearby high school in Tumbler Ridge. The shooting resulted in the deaths of 5 students aged between 12 and 13, as well as a teaching assistant. Van Rootselaar was later found dead from gunshot wounds, with authorities suspecting it was a suicide.
Tumbler Ridge, located in the Rocky Mountains region of British Columbia, Canada, is over 600 miles northeast of Vancouver and near the province of Alberta. Provincial government data shows that the local high school accommodates grades 7 to 12 with approximately 175 students.
Following the shooting incident, the families of the victims have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in the U.S. federal court, seeking accountability from the developers of ChatGPT. The families allege that concerning interactions had occurred between the gunman and the chatbot, but OpenAI failed to report it to the authorities.
The extent to which Bryant was aware of the specific plans of the gunman, whether he provided substantial assistance, and whether he should be held accountable for related crimes, are all pending further clarification through the judicial process.