OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has issued an apology to the members of the Canadian community, where a mass shooting took place in February this year, for not flagging the account of the shooter to law enforcement despite finding that the account was being used for illicit purposes.
A mass shooting incident in a small community of Tumbler Ridge in northeast British Columbia left eight people dead.
An 18-year-old man named Jesse Van Rootselaar opened fire at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and fatally shot six people before inflicting a fatal gunshot wound to himself. His mother and 11-year-old brother were killed in a nearby residence.
Sam Altman said that the shooter’s ChatGPT account was banned in June 2025; however, a review found no imminent danger to the community. So, the company did not alert the police.
The account was banned after automated abuse detection tools and human investigators identified the potential misuse of ChatGPT for violent activities.
In a letter to the British Columbia Premier David Eby, Altman said, “The pain your community has endured is unimaginable. I have been thinking of you often over the past few months. I am deeply sorry that we did not alert law enforcement to the account that was banned in June.”
He continued, “I want to express my deepest condolences to the entire community. No one should ever have to endure a tragedy like this.”
His apology comes after the Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced an investigation into OpenAI after a mass shooting incident in April 2025 involving a Florida State University student.
Uthmeier said that OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT offered significant advice to the alleged shooter.
