US resident arrested in connection to Canada school shooting

US authorities arrested ⁠a person in Washington state on Tuesday ⁠who they accuse of providing advice and offering to live-stream a deadly mass shooting carried out earlier this year in Canada.

James Cody Bryant, 30, was detained on a charge of conspiracy to murder people in a foreign country in connection to the shooting at ‌Tumbler Ridge, according to the Department of Justice.

The charge carries a penalty of up to life in prison.

Bryant was in repeated contact with the shooter, Jesse Van Rootselaar, offering technical advice, sending money, including for the shoes to be used during the attack, and agreeing to live-stream the event, law enforcement officials said.

“James Cody Bryant had the information and ability to alert law enforcement ⁠and even discussed that possibility with the shooter, but he chose not to, and he encouraged and offered assistance ‌to a murderer,” Acting US Attorney for the Western District of Washington Neil Floyd told reporters.

Court records did not immediately list a lawyer for Bryant.

Nine people, primarily children, ‌were killed in the school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, in one of Canada’s worst ⁠mass shootings.

Van Rootselaar, ⁠18, who had suffered from a series of mental health problems, killed her mother and stepbrother at home before shooting dead a teacher and ‌five young students at her former school in Tumbler Ridge, a settlement of around 2,400 in the Canadian Rockies, according to police.

Van ‌Rootselaar then died by suicide.

Bryant, who officials ‌said they understood identifies as female, agreed to live-stream a ⁠feed of the attack and broadcast it “in a way that would maximise notoriety for the shooter”, Mike Herrington, FBI ⁠Seattle special agent in charge, said.

The live stream on Twitch was shut down after about 20 seconds, officials said.

“Without Bryant’s misplaced loyalty and willingness to operate the live stream, we don’t ultimately ‌know if the shooter would have ‌gone through with the crime,” Herrington said.

“We certainly know the shooter was concerned that not enough people would see the live stream without Bryant broadcasting it, and was depending on Bryant to amplify the live stream because the shooter did not have many followers on social media.”

If you have suicidal thoughts or know someone who is experiencing them, help is available. In Hong Kong, you can dial 18111 for the government-run Mental Health Support Hotline. You can also call +852 2896 0000 for The Samaritans or +852 2382 0000 for Suicide Prevention Services. In the US, call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. For a list of other nations’ helplines, see this page.