On Monday, September 21, Niki Sharma, the Attorney General of British Columbia, Canada, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in California, USA. The reason behind the lawsuit is that the company allegedly failed to warn local law enforcement despite knowing that a gunman had planned a mass school shooting using ChatGPT, which ultimately resulted in the tragic death of 8 individuals.
The shooting incident involved 18-year-old Jessie Van Rootselaar, who on February 10, murdered his mother and stepbrother at home before proceeding to a school in Tumbler Ridge, where he shot and killed one teacher and five students aged only 12 to 13, before taking his own life.
The province of British Columbia is seeking compensation from OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman to cover the losses and recovery expenses incurred as a result of the school shooting. They are also requesting the court to order OpenAI to make changes to ChatGPT to prevent such violent incidents from happening again.
The lawsuit states that the school where the incident occurred is currently being demolished, and the costs of rebuilding the school, providing mental health counseling, etc., are being borne by the provincial government. Attorney General Sharma mentioned that all economic compensation received by the province will be used for the reconstruction of the school.
Furthermore, the lawsuit reveals that an internal whistleblower at OpenAI had disclosed to The Wall Street Journal that the gunman, Van Rootselaar, had been flagged in June 2025 for “misusing AI to promote violent activities.” Despite recommendations to report to law enforcement at that time, the suggestions were overruled by Altman and other company executives, citing that the content did not meet the reporting standard to authorities.
Although Van Rootselaar’s account was later suspended, she managed to create a new account to continue planning attacks using the platform.
After The Wall Street Journal exposed these internal affairs, Altman issued a public apology to the Tumbler Ridge community for not contacting law enforcement. The government of British Columbia highlighted that this apology confirmed OpenAI’s legal responsibility of “willful neglect despite knowing the risks.”
Sharma accused that despite multiple attempts to communicate with Altman, the government’s concerns, and those of survivors, families, and the Tumbler Ridge community, were not addressed by the company.
Sharma revealed to reporters on Monday that the province had previously requested OpenAI to disclose the complete conversation records between the gunman and ChatGPT, but the request was denied. She openly questioned, “Why is OpenAI afraid to make this information public?”
In response to these allegations, OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri expressed that the school shooting in Tumbler Ridge was an indescribable tragedy and the company would collaborate with the government and law enforcement to continue advancing AI safety measures.
Apart from the lawsuit filed by the government of British Columbia against OpenAI, over 30 related victims have also filed lawsuits in the California federal court, accusing the company of failing to prevent the school shooting.
In recent months, OpenAI has faced several legal battles across the US, with allegations that ChatGPT promotes violence. Following a school shooting incident at Florida State University in 2025, Florida sued OpenAI in June this year, accusing ChatGPT of providing harmful messages to the campus shooter, leading to addict behavior and the tragic school shooting.
OpenAI denies these accusations, arguing that during AI training, they mandated rejection of any requests promoting actual violence and system alerts law enforcement whenever conversations indicate a “credible and immediate threat to others.”