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VANCOUVER — An American lawyer representing some of the victims of the Tumbler Ridge, B.C., mass shooting says they will likely be seeking more than US$1 billion in their California legal action against OpenAI and its founder Sam Altman.
Chicago-based Jay Edelson has represented a number of clients in wrongful death cases against the artificial intelligence platform and Altman in the past year.
But Edelson said Wednesday that the Tumbler Ridge shootings in which eight victims were killed was the most egregious case his law firm had encountered, citing catastrophic injuries suffered by child plaintiff Maya Gebala.
The other plaintiffs include the parents of children killed in the attack and the husband of Shannda Aviugana-Durand, a teacher’s aide who was also shot dead.
“In terms of what we’re going to ask a jury, we think that when you look at Maya’s situation, for example — this 12-year-old girl who was shot at point-blank range and is fighting for her life — we expect that the jury is going to come back with a very strong message to OpenAI, and we’ll certainly be asking for more than a billion dollars,” Edelson said.
Eighteen-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar shot dead eight people on Feb. 10 before shooting herself, and it has since been revealed that OpenAI staff flagged the killer’s troubling interactions with the firm’s ChatGPT chatbot months earlier — but the company did not inform police.
In seven overlapping lawsuits, the Tumbler Ridge plaintiffs allege that in addition to their failure to warn authorities, OpenAI and Altman aided and abetted the shooting, among other allegations.
“So we’ve handled suicides that were coached by ChatGPT, a murder of an 83-year-old where a mentally ill man was brought into a conspiracy-laden world and was led to believe that his mother and others were trying to kill him, and he ended up killing her and himself,” Edelson said.
“And we’ve seen a number of cases where mass casualty events have been discussed and planned on platforms like ChatGPT and also Google Gemini. This case (Tumbler Ridge) is obviously the worst thing that we’ve encountered.”
Edelson is the American co-counsel for Tumbler Ridge victims and family members who filed the wrongful-death lawsuits in California against OpenAI and Altman on Wednesday.
OpenAI has not responded to a request for comment sent through social media platform X.
But in a statement released on its website on Tuesday OpenAI said it was “constantly improving the steps we take to help protect people and communities,” and that “mass shootings, threats against public officials, bombing attempts, and attacks on communities and individuals are an unacceptable and grave reality.”
In the lawsuits, the victims and their families allege OpenAI made a conscious decision not to notify police about Van Rootselaar’s activity, knowing that adding proper safety protocols to ChatGPT would cost the company market share.
The plaintiffs also allege that deactivating the shooter’s account was misleading because the company provided clear instructions to users on how to create new accounts.
OpenAI has said that Van Rootselaar had a second account, in addition to the one that was shut down.
“Those instructions were no accident,” the lawsuit said. “Neither were the missing safeguards. They are part of a pattern. After every tragedy, OpenAI promises to do better. But it never promises to do the one thing that would actually make a difference: stop ChatGPT from engaging with users about violence and self-harm in the first place.”
In a message shared by B.C. Premier David Eby last week, Altman apologized to victims, saying it was necessary despite words not being enough.
“I am deeply sorry that we did not alert law enforcement to the account that was banned in June,” Altman said in the apology.
In a statement sent through the plaintiffs’ Canadian lawyers, Maya Gebala’s mother Cia Edmonds dismissed Altman’s apology.
“Did you use ChatGPT to draft your ‘apology,’ Sam?” Edmonds said in the statement. “It is empty, soulless, and lacks any human warmth. Only a machine could have put those words together and called it an apology.
“Tumbler Ridge sees your ‘apology,’ Sam. We do not accept it.”
B.C. Premier David Eby said Wednesday he remains committed to “get the answers” about the role of artificial intelligence in the mass shooting, and a public inquiry into the case remains on the table.
He also reiterated B.C.’s position that there should be federal regulation of artificial intelligence and social media for children, given the possible harms involved.
“The urgency of the federal government taking the lead, and in the absence of that, a willing coalition of the provinces taking action on that, is absolutely crucial,” Eby said. “We know that now. We don’t need to wait for a lawsuit in California or a coroner’s inquest here, we just know that action is needed.”
Evan Solomon, the federal minister of artificial intelligence, told reporters that Ottawa is aware of the lawsuit, and the government but will be pursuing improvements in the AI field “to make sure that citizens are protected.”
“And as I said, all options are on the table,” Solomon said.
The plaintiffs’ Canadian lawyers, Rice Parsons Leoni & Elliott LLP, said they decided to pursue the lawsuits in California partially because of caps placed on damages for pain and suffering in Canadian courts, with the largest punitive damages award in Canadian history being $1.5 million.
“With respect to the murdered children, their estates are not permitted to bring claims in British Columbia for damages against OpenAI, and in most cases the loved ones of wrongfully killed children are unable to recover any recompense under British Columbia’s Family Compensation Act,” the firm says in a statement.
Christopher J. Robinette, professor of law at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles, said he isn’t surprised the Tumbler Ridge families chose to file their lawsuits in California given the legal environment there.
“Wrongful-death cases in California are not capped unless they are on the basis of medical malpractice, in which case there is a cap,” Robinette said, adding it’s not uncommon to see foreign citizens bring such lawsuits to the state “especially given that the damages tend to be greater here than in most other jurisdictions.”
Edelson said that OpenAI has tried to slow down legal processes in past cases, and filing in California where witnesses are located will speed up the case.
OpenAI said in March that its latest round of funding valued the company at US$852 billion, and Edelson said the company may be worth in excess of US$1 trillion by the time a trial starts.
“We’re well aware that even if the jury does award a billion dollars, that’s not going to make a big dent on their financials,” Edelson added. “It will send a powerful statement, and the main goal of this lawsuit is to get OpenAI to take a dangerous product off market and to act responsibly.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 29, 2026.
Chuck Chiang, The Canadian Press
