Nine people have been k!lled and dozens wounded after a shooting at a school and home in northeast British Columbia, Canada on Tuesday afternoon
Six of the victims d!ed on the school premises, making it Canada’s deadliest such shooting in decades.
A seventh person d!ed en route to hospital, while the bodies of two people were found at a home in Tumbler Ridge, a town of just 2,400 people.
Police know the identity of the alleged shooter, who was also found dead at the school with a self-inflicted injury, but did not give further details and declined to say if they were a child.
A Tumbler Ridge-based journalist who attended the scene after receiving word of the incident described the worry and shock that has enveloped the town following the school shooting yesterday.
Speaking to Gloria Macarenko on Canada’s CBC News, Trent Ernst said residents alerted him to reports of an active shooter via Facebook. He discovered roads were blocked once he neared the address.
The reporter said people in the area were advised to take shelter. “My wife works at the district office and they were locked down,” Ernst said, adding that his eldest daughter, who works at a daycare centre beside the school where the shooting took place, remained on lockdown for an extended time.
Ernst said unsubstantiated reports have spread quickly, causing panic. “People are definitely worried,” he added. “There’s a lot of worried parents right now.”
Addressing the devastation felt throughout his community, he described an otherwise peaceful town unfamiliar with tragedy.
“There’s that sense of quietness, safety. These things are things that happen elsewhere, they don’t happen here,” Ernst said, becoming emotional as he added, “And that’s been shattered.”
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