British Columbia has filed a lawsuit in a US federal court in California against OpenAI and its chief executive, Sam Altman, alleging the firm failed to alert police about a school shooter’s use of ChatGPT.
The province said the February attack at a school in Tumbler Ridge could have been prevented had OpenAI warned local law enforcement that the shooter used the chatbot to plan the massacre. The complaint, filed in San Francisco on Monday, asks for damages to support recovery efforts and seeks a court order requiring changes to how OpenAI handles ChatGPT conversations that could lead to violence.
Allegations Involving Warning To Police
The lawsuit names OpenAI and Altman as defendants. It argues that OpenAI’s safety team flagged the shooter after she discussed gun violence in her ChatGPT conversations, but that the company did not contact police.
According to the filing, senior OpenAI leadership overruled recommendations to inform law enforcement despite internal concerns about the content of the chatbot interactions.
Victims And Costs For The Province
Nine people were killed in the school shooting, the province said, adding that most of those who died were children.
The complaint says the school is now in the process of being demolished. It also states that British Columbia has had to cover the costs of building a replacement school, providing mental health care, and dealing with other impacts linked to the attack.
OpenAI’s chief spokesperson, Drew Pusateri, said in response that the Tumbler Ridge shooting was an “unspeakable tragedy”. He added that the company remains committed to working with government and law enforcement and continuing its safety work.
Shooter’s ChatGPT Use Detailed
Police said Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18, shot her mother and stepbrother at home before killing an educational assistant and five students aged 12 and 13 at her former school on 10 February. Van Rootselaar died by suicide.
The province’s lawsuit alleges that OpenAI first flagged the shooter’s interactions with ChatGPT in June 2025. It says safety team members recommended contacting police, but that Altman and other senior figures rejected that step. The filing also says the shooter’s account was deactivated, but she was able to create a new account and continue using the platform to plan the attack.
After a Wall Street Journal report, OpenAI said the account had been flagged by systems designed to identify “misuses of our models in furtherance of violent activities”, but that the issues did not meet its internal criteria for reporting to law enforcement.
In a letter published to the community, Altman said he was “deeply sorry” that OpenAI had not contacted law enforcement and promised reforms, the lawsuit says. It adds that efforts by British Columbia’s attorney general to engage with the company did not lead to the changes the province sought.
Legal Pressure In US Courts
British Columbia’s action follows lawsuits filed by more than 30 family members of victims and others affected by the attack in California, accusing the company of choosing not to take steps that could have prevented the shooting.
The British Columbia case is also part of a wider set of claims in US state and federal courts alleging that ChatGPT and related systems have facilitated violence. One such case includes a lawsuit filed last year after a mass shooting at Florida State University.
In June, Florida became the first state to sue OpenAI, accusing it of misrepresenting the safety of its ChatGPT platform. Florida’s lawsuit said the company caused harm to children by giving information to school shooters, offering guidance on self-harm and encouraging addictive use.
OpenAI has denied the allegations. It has said its models are trained to refuse requests that could “meaningfully enable violence” and that it notifies law enforcement when conversations suggest an “imminent and credible risk of harm to others”.
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22 September 2026
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