Back in April, seven lawsuits were filed against OpenAI on behalf of the families of the victims of February 10, with the promise of at least two dozen more to be filed later.
That second shoe has dropped, as, on September 2, thirty new lawsuits were brought forward on behalf of “injured and traumatized students and educators.”
“Dozens of students and educators were front-row witnesses to the bloodshed,” says a release from the firm Rice Parsons Leoni & Elliott LLP who are working together with American lawyers from Edelson PC. These new lawsuits allege that “OpenAI’s own safety team identified the Shooter as a credible threat of imminent gun violence eight months before the attack, recommended that the company call the RCMP, and were overruled by OpenAI’s leadership.”
Like the previous lawsuits, these ones have been in the Northern District of California. While Rice Parsons Leoni & Elliott LLP were hoping to use the incident to bring about changes to BC Wrongful Death Laws.
Back in March, the law firm sent an open letter to the people of Tumbler Ridge, saying that in BC, the law does not permit cases on behalf of loved ones of those harmed or killed to proceed as a general rule. “Cases for loved ones of people who have suffered harms are especially challenging, and there is a significant body of case law that says wrongdoers don’t owe duties of care to the loved ones of the people they harmed, no matter how awful the harm they have caused. For example, ‘public policy’ arguments have made it hard for loved ones of those negligently killed by medical malpractice to advance their own legal claims, because we have a publicly funded health care system, and expanding lawsuits against doctors, nurses and hospitals on behalf of loved ones would be an extraordinary burden on taxpayers.
“On the basis, and given the egregious facts of this case, we could possibly make new law or develop factual arguments on existing law.”
While litigating in the US won’t change BC’s Wrongful Death laws, it may prove to be more punitive for the company. When the first seven lawsuits were filed, the company explained its decision to bring suit in the States. “Damages for pain and suffering [in BC] are capped at approximately $470,000 CAD. The largest punitive damages award ever made in Canadian history is $1.5 million CAD. With respect to the murdered children, their estates are not permitted to bring claims in British Columbia for damages against OpenAI, and in most cases the loved ones of wrongfully killed children are unable to recover any recompense under British Columbia’s Family Compensation Act.”
John Rice, lead Canadian counsel for the complainants, says “these students and teachers were eyewitnesses to gun violence, murder, and emergency life-saving efforts rarely seen outside of a theatre of war, and only in the most lawless of places on earth. If the allegations of fact are proven true in court, our clients and their families want justice. In particular, the production of all chat-log material between the Shooter and ChatGPT before the Tumbler Ridge Mass Shooting, and all of OpenAI’s internal documents showing why corporate actors chose in June 2025 not to alert Canadian authorities that the Shooter was planning an imminent mass casualty event.”
Secondly says Rice, they want “historic compensatory and punitive damages,” as a way of punishing OpenAI for its “reckless disregard for public safety.” The hope is, he says, to deter OpenAI and all tech and AI companies from doing the same thing, and “to express society’s condemnation and outrage over such egregious corporate malfeasance.”
The third and final goal outlined is a desire to prevent another AI-facilitated mass shooting “through meaningful injunctive relief obliging major platform safety reforms, warnings, and mandatory law enforcement reporting requirements for all foreseeable and imminent acts of violence.”
While the court documents have yet to be made public, Rice says the cases are filed on behalf of “eyewitnesses and victims of the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting.” (Note: the statement of one of the people—Deidre Rushlow—was made public. We’ve reproduced it here.)
“The new complaints set out allegations regarding OpenAI’s callous disregard for the Tumbler Ridge community when its safety team identified the perpetrator of the mass shooting as someone posing a credible threat of imminent and specific gun violence, but executives declined to inform law enforcement, preferring the interests of their company over the lives of innocent children. The complaints also detail what we say are the fundamental and extremely dangerous design flaws in OpenAI’s product, ChatGPT.”
Says Rice: “it is the honour and privilege of our careers to represent those harmed by the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting, and we will fight relentlessly to get justice for each and every one of our clients.”
Niki Sharma, Attorney General for the province of BC says her thoughts remain with the town. “My thoughts remain with everyone whose lives were forever changed by the events of Feb. 10, 2026, in Tumbler Ridge. No family, student or community should ever have to endure such profound trauma and loss.”
Sharma says the government fully supports the families in their pursuit of justice through the courts. “We recognize the courage it takes for survivors, families and community members to come forward to pursue answers and justice. We are deeply disappointed that OpenAI has made no meaningful efforts to address the harm suffered by those affected by this tragedy, and we support the additional legal claims that have been filed against the company.”
The province continues to work with its legal team, both here in British Columbia and in California to explore all available legal options. While the province has not moved forward on any legal action, it is still investigating ways to hold OpenAI and its decision-makers “accountable for its documented failure to notify law enforcement regarding explicit, flagged threats made by the perpetrator on the company’s ChatGPT platform.”
These actions would be separate from the 37 lawsuits that have been filed against OpenAI by people in Tumbler Ridge, but Sharma says the province will work closely with those involved in these cases. “These processes can proceed independently and in parallel while seeking accountability through different legal avenues.
“The commitments made by OpenAI’s leadership, including Sam Altman and Ann O’Leary, have yet to be matched by meaningful action for the people most affected by this tragedy. It is not too late for the company to demonstrate a genuine commitment to survivors, families and the Tumbler Ridge community.
“As these efforts continue, our focus remains on supporting the people of Tumbler Ridge and standing with the community as it continues to heal and recover. We will continue to pursue accountability while working to secure support for community rebuilding efforts, including the construction of a new Tumbler Ridge school facility.”
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
