The mass killing at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in British Columbia has left Canada reeling and searching for answers after eight people were slaughtered, including the gunman’s mother and stepbrother.
According to the New York Post, Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18, first carried out a deadly attack at a private residence before continuing the carnage at the school. Six people were found dead inside the building. His mother, identified by CTV News as 39-year-old Jennifer Strang, and his 11-year-old stepbrother were discovered dead at the home. Roughly 25 others were wounded. Authorities said Van Rootselaar died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald said Van Rootselaar was “born a biological male … who approximately six years ago began to transition to female, and identified as female.” An initial alert described the suspect as a “female in a dress.”
McDonald said the teen was known to authorities and that police had visited the family home “several times over the years” over concerns about his mental health. Firearms had previously been seized but were later returned to the lawful owner after a successful petition. A long gun and a modified handgun were recovered at the school, though police have not confirmed whether they were the same weapons.
The massacre ranks among the deadliest in Canadian history.
In the aftermath, commentator Alex Jones offered a stark spiritual interpretation. “Demon possession is real,” Jones wrote. He argued that instead of confronting what he described as a spiritual crisis, authorities “knowingly weaponized the entity and turned it loose.” He claimed Canadian health officials “convinced Jesse he was Trans & pumped him full of Hormone puberty blockers & a whole heap of other medication,” adding, “They literally poisoned his body & mind instead of getting him the help he actually needed.”
Demon possession is real.
— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) February 12, 2026
Instead of calling an exorcist, the left knowingly weaponized the entity and turned it loose..
This is Jesse Van Rootselaar – The 18 Year Old Trans Shooter who murdered at least 10 people at Tumbler Ridge School yesterday in Canada.
Instead of… https://t.co/YfZoQDrkmf pic.twitter.com/vWHDE7xnwJ
Jones’ language is blunt and often controversial. Yet his core assertion that spiritual forces operate behind acts of extreme violence is not foreign to Scripture. The modern media rarely entertains that dimension, leaving discussions limited to policy failures, mental health systems and political narratives.
The Bible presents a sobering account of spiritual oppression in Mark 5:1–20. A man possessed by an unclean spirit lived among the tombs, cutting himself and crying out day and night. He exhibited strength beyond human limits and tormented himself. When Jesus confronted the spirits, they identified themselves as “Legion: for we are many.” After Christ cast them out, the man was found “sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind” in verse 15.
This account is not mythology. It is a demonstration that evil spirits can torment, distort and drive human beings toward self-destruction and violence. Ignoring that reality does not neutralize it. It only gives demonic forces a free path to torture souls and push the vulnerable into madness.
Recent tragedies underscore the pattern. At Covenant School in Nashville in 2023, a transgender shooter targeted a Christian school and murdered children and staff. At Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, more transgender violence shattered a faith community. Now Tumbler Ridge Secondary School joins that grim list.
Each case involves layers of psychological distress, ideological confusion and moral collapse. Yet Scripture teaches that our battle “is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,” as Ephesians 6:12 states.
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To reduce such atrocities to policy debates alone is to miss the deeper war that rages in the spiritual realm.
The Christian response is not hysteria or hatred but truth and spiritual discernment. Christ came “to preach deliverance to the captives,” as Luke 4:18 declares. The demoniac of Gadara was not mocked or politicized. He was set free.
If society refuses to acknowledge the supernatural battlefield, it leaves interpretation of evil either to silence or to fringe voices. The church cannot afford that vacuum. Prayer, repentance and the proclamation of the gospel remain the only lasting answer to the darkness that manifests in horrific acts like those witnessed in British Columbia.
Ignoring the demonic does not make it disappear. It leaves broken souls without deliverance and communities vulnerable to the next eruption of evil.
James Lasher, a seasoned writer and editor at Charisma Media, combines faith and storytelling with a background in journalism from Otterbein University and ministry experience in Guatemala and the LA Dream Center. A Marine Corps and Air Force veteran, he is the author of The Revelation of Jesus: A Common Man’s Commentary and a contributor to Charisma magazine. For interviews and media inquiries, please contact [email protected].
