10 dead, dozens injured in rural Canada school shooting allegedly purported by trans individual

At least 10 people are dead and dozens injured after an armed assailant opened fire at a remote high school in northeast British Columbia Tuesday afternoon, according to media reports.

The alleged shooter is among the dead, apparently by self-inflicted injury. The suspect, who preliminary reports described as a male wearing a dress, reportedly killed two family members in the town of Tumbler Ridge before going to the school.

The small community about 600 miles northeast of Vancouver has 2,700 residents. There are 175 students at the grades 7-12 Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, the Associated Press reported.

The school shooting was described as Canada’s deadliest in decades. A gunman killed 13 people in Nova Scotia in 2020 and set fires that killed nine others but the shooting wasn’t school related, according to the AP.

While official alerts sent to the community described the shooter as “a woman in a dress,” and government officials continued to describe the shooter as a woman, social media posts revealed the alleged shooter as 17-year-old male Jesse Strang, who identified as female.

Canada’s Juno News spoke with Strang’s uncle, Russell G. Strang, “who confirmed Jesse was transgender and responsible for the shooting that left 10 people dead, including the suspect.”

This would mark the latest school shooting by a transgender individual in the last three years. Examples in the U.S. include Audrey Hale in Nashville, Tennessee, and Robert “Robin” Westman in Minneapolis.

After the Minneapolis shooting, which was at Annunciation Catholic school in August, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it would consider blocking trans-identifying individuals from buying guns.

Days later, Tyler Robinson, who was in a relationship with a male who identified as transgender, allegedly gunned down conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The White House responded by saying it would take a “serious look” at the threat of transgender violence.

School shootings are often followed by calls to restrict gun access, but Canada already has strict gun laws. Since 2020, it has banned more than 2,500 types of assault weapons, and in October of 2022 froze the sale and purchase of handguns.

The government has bought back thousands of assault-style weapons from businesses and individuals since November 2024. This year, an Oct. 30 deadline exists to dispose of or permanently deactivate banned guns.

This is a developing story and may be updated.