Tertius News is an AI-native newsroom: an AI model reads the linked source articles below and extracts what each outlet reported, so you can compare their coverage side by side. How this works →
OpenAI faces 30 new lawsuits over Tumbler Ridge shooting
Thirty new lawsuits were filed against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman over the Tumbler Ridge school shooting, accusing the company of aiding and abetting the attack. Plaintiffs allege OpenAI's leadership, including Chris Lehane, overrode safety recommendations to alert authorities. OpenAI denies the claims, saying it prioritizes safety and that Lehane was not involved.
By Tertius News AI Desk6 distinct · 8 mastheads · 8 articlesVersion 7Coverage Published
distinct = voices after wire copies and reprints of the same article collapse; mastheads = publisher names; articles = URLs
New lawsuits filed against OpenAI
Thirty new lawsuits were filed Wednesday in a California federal court against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, by students, teachers, and a principal who were present during the February mass shooting at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in British Columbia. The complaints, filed by the law firm Edelson PC, accuse the ChatGPT maker of providing "substantial assistance and encouragement" to the suspect, Jesse Van Rootselaar, and escalate earlier claims from negligence to aiding and abetting the attack.
The new filings bring the total number of lawsuits tied to the Tumbler Ridge shooting to 37, following seven initial suits filed in April by families of victims. The plaintiffs include teachers, a principal, and students who were in the building during the attack but not physically shot, as well as the family of a girl who was shot.
Allegations of ignored warnings
The lawsuits allege that OpenAI's automated review system flagged Van Rootselaar's ChatGPT account for "gun violence activity and planning" in June 2025, roughly eight months before the attack. According to the complaints, OpenAI's Intelligence and Investigations team determined the conversations "posed a credible threat of gun violence against real people" and recommended that the company alert the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Instead, the lawsuits claim, OpenAI deactivated the account but did not issue a system-wide ban, allowing Van Rootselaar to create a new account and continue using ChatGPT.
The new complaints specifically allege that Chris Lehane, OpenAI's chief global affairs officer, was involved in a decision to stay silent about the account out of concern for the company's "reputational and financial standing." One complaint, filed by Deidre Rushlow, a 7th grade teacher at the school, states: "As a result, the decision whether to alert law enforcement to a user planning a mass attack was not made by the trained threat-assessment professionals who urged OpenAI to contact the RCMP. It was made, on information and belief, by Lehane himself, or by someone in his chain of command, and ratified by Sam Altman."
The complaints also point to a November 2025 incident in which OpenAI locked down its San Francisco offices following an alleged threat from an activist, noting that the company notified police and distributed the suspect's name and photograph despite acknowledging "no indication of active threat activity." The lawsuits argue that this shows OpenAI was willing to act when its own employees were at risk.
Jay Edelson, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said: "These were people who really endured just total hell that day." He also said: "What's clear is that OpenAI over and over has made decisions to hide how dangerous their platform is because they're worried about regulation and public pushback."
OpenAI's response
OpenAI has disputed the claims about its internal decision-making. Jason Kwon, the company's chief strategy officer, said in a statement: "It's so frustrating to see one of the lawyers currently suing OpenAI make false claims not only about these teams, but individuals who were not involved in the process." Kwon said it is "absolutely false to say Chris Lehane was involved with our original referral decision, or that our investigators report to him in any way," and that it is "completely untrue to say that the people at the center of these challenging decisions do not prioritize safety, or that there are 'political' or 'public relations' factors at play."
Kwon said OpenAI's Intelligence and Investigations team and legal department report to him and "work hard to define standards and processes for when to report cases to law enforcement and to apply those standards to really difficult and complex situations." He added: "The professionals working on these teams choose to do this incredibly difficult work because they care so deeply about keeping people safe." Kwon also said: "There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about what happened at Tumbler Ridge, or the victims of this devastating tragedy and their families."
In response to the first set of lawsuits filed in April, OpenAI said it had a "zero tolerance" policy for using its tools to assist in committing violence, and the company has said it was not aware of Van Rootselaar's second account until after the shooting. Sam Altman wrote a public letter to the Tumbler Ridge community apologizing for not alerting law enforcement about the suspect's account when it was first flagged.
The shooting and its aftermath
The shooting occurred on February 10, 2026, at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School. According to authorities, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar killed her mother and 11-year-old half-brother at home before going to the school, where she killed five students and a teacher before dying by suicide. Around two dozen others were injured. The attack was among the worst in Canadian history.
British Columbia Premier David Eby said of Altman's apology: "The apology is necessary, and yet grossly insufficient for the devastation done to the families of Tumbler Ridge."
Broader legal context
The new lawsuits come amid a wave of litigation against OpenAI and other AI companies. Prior to the newest complaints, more than 30 lawsuits had been filed in federal and state courts over suicides, mass shootings, and other harms involving chatbot users, according to a review of legal filings. In June, the state of Florida sued OpenAI and Altman for failing to warn users that ChatGPT could be dangerous, and Florida's attorney general is conducting a separate criminal investigation into OpenAI over a shooting at Florida State University in which the accused gunman allegedly consulted ChatGPT for advice.
Tim Marple, who worked on OpenAI's investigations team in 2024 and is now co-director of Maiden Labs, a nonprofit that identifies AI risks, said incidents like Tumbler Ridge expose the risks of letting AI companies self-regulate. "Despite warnings from across the board, a wide variety of experts, we have not established anywhere close to a meaningful regulatory regime to enforce independent authority over the companies building this technology," he said. "So the problem is, and has been for years, that the only people looking at safety systems are the same people who make money from it."
How each outlet told it
A framing line is our reading of that outlet's own text — an interpretation, not a quotation and not a fact we assert. Check it against what the outlet published.
Framing: The headline emphasizes that OpenAI faces new lawsuits linked to a Canadian school shooting.
Facts Included:
OpenAI was hit with multiple lawsuits claiming the company could have prevented a mass shooting in Canada by informing law enforcement about the suspect's messages with ChatGPT.
Complaints were filed Wednesday in federal court in California by teachers, students and a principal present during the February massacre at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in British Columbia.
Plaintiffs alleged OpenAI knew Jesse Van Rootselaar was planning the attack due to her use of ChatGPT, but made a 'conscious decision' not to warn authorities.
Quote from Jay Edelson: 'This is not someone typing into Google... This is technology where the chatbot is helping plan murders.'
In April, seven cases were filed by other family members and victims, including the mother of a girl killed and a 12-year-old student who was shot.
Jason Kwon, OpenAI's Chief Strategy Officer, said it's 'completely untrue to say that the people at the center of these challenging decisions do not prioritize safety.'
Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman, a defendant, wrote a public letter apologizing for failing to report the suspect's account to law enforcement.
Lawsuits claim OpenAI's system flagged the account for 'gun violence activity and attack planning' roughly eight months prior to the shooting.
An internal safety team recommended referring chat logs to law enforcement; in June 2025, leaders vetoed the recommendation and deactivated the account.
The suits claim the decision was in the hands of OpenAI's Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane; Kwon defended Lehane, saying it is 'absolutely false' that Lehane was involved.
The suits allege the company prioritized reputation over safety; quote: 'The risk of real-world deaths never factored into the calculation—or if it did, it was treated as an acceptable cost of protecting the corporate brand.'
On the day of the attack, Van Rootselaar allegedly killed her mother and stepbrother at home, then killed six other people at the school, five of whom were children.
She was found dead after the shooting from what appeared to be a self-inflicted wound.
Framing: The headline emphasizes the filing of 30 new lawsuits by Edelson PC against OpenAI in connection with the Tumbler Ridge school shooting. — The tone is somber and accusatory, presenting the allegations as serious and the company's actions as blameworthy.
Facts Included:
Edelson PC filed 30 new lawsuits against OpenAI
The lawsuits escalate claims from negligence to aiding and abetting
Chris Lehane, OpenAI's head of global affairs, is named as a defendant
The shooting occurred on February 10, 2026, at Tumbler Ridge school in British Columbia
The attack killed eight people and injured at least 27
Plaintiffs seek over $1 billion in combined damages
OpenAI's internal safety team flagged the ChatGPT account of shooter Jesse Van Rootselaar in June 2025
Leadership overruled the recommendation to report the account
Original seven lawsuits were filed on April 29, 2026, targeting OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman
Van Rootselaar killed five children and an educator before dying by suicide
Plaintiffs allege OpenAI allowed the shooter to create a new account after an initial ban
Each lawsuit requests a jury trial
OpenAI's safety team made a concrete recommendation to report Van Rootselaar
Framing: Emphasizes the new batch of lawsuits against OpenAI, framing it as a continuation of legal pressure tied to the Tumbler Ridge shooting.
Facts Included:
Edelson PC filed seven lawsuits against OpenAI in April on behalf of victims and families connected to the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting.
Edelson PC is filing 30 additional complaints this week.
New plaintiffs include teachers, a principal, and students who were in the building during the attack but not physically shot.
The new filings accuse OpenAI of aiding and abetting the mass shooting.
The complaints were filed in a California court on Tuesday.
The shooting occurred in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, Canada on February 10.
Teenager Jesse Van Rootselaar killed her mother and half-brother at home, then went to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and killed six more people and injured dozens of others before dying by suicide.
The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI staff had been alarmed by Van Rootselaar’s use of ChatGPT, including conversations around gun violence and advice for how to plan an attack.
OpenAI employees reportedly urged leaders to alert Canadian law enforcement about Van Rootselaar’s potential for real-world violence, but leaders decided not to contact the authorities.
OpenAI deactivated Van Rootselaar’s account, but she was able to make another one shortly after.
OpenAI claimed Van Rootselaar’s activity didn’t meet the company’s internal bar for an “imminent and credible risk” of serious physical harm to others required to engage with law enforcement.
Jason Kwon, OpenAI’s chief strategy officer, said in a statement: “That judgment is not infallible, but it is always rooted in looking out for this balance for people.”
The new complaints specifically name OpenAI Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane as the person who told staff to stand down and not contact the authorities.
The complaints offer no direct evidence that Lehane was personally involved, and OpenAI has denied his involvement.
Lehane is described as a well-known political operator and PR spin master with particular expertise in damage control, having worked for the Clinton administration, at Airbnb, and now at OpenAI.
The plaintiffs allege that Lehane’s background contributes to a culture at OpenAI that prioritizes public relations and damage control over safety.
A complaint reads: “The Intelligence and Investigations Team—the only team inside OpenAI responsible for identifying ChatGPT users who pose a threat of real-world violence—was placed under [Lehane’s] control.”
A complaint reads: “As a result, the decision whether to alert law enforcement to a user planning a mass attack was not made by the trained threat-assessment professionals who urged OpenAI to contact the [Canadian police].”
It was made, on information and belief, by Lehane himself, or by someone in his chain of command, and ratified by Sam Altman.
“On information and belief” is a legal term meaning the plaintiffs believe a claim to be true based on secondhand information.
TechCrunch was unable to confirm whether Lehane indeed has the authority to override recommendations from the intelligence and investigations team, or whether he was involved in this specific case at all.
Lehane is not listed as a defendant in the complaints, though OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is.
Jay Edelson, the lead lawyer, told TechCrunch: “We are not laying out all of our evidence at this point,” noting that Lehane and Altman will be “critical witnesses” alongside the safety team.
Jay Edelson said: “We can tell you that we are basing this in part on the org chart, but also our broader investigation, which includes what we have learned about how Lehane operates within the company.”
Kwon said: “It is absolutely false to say Chris Lehane was involved with our original referral decision, or that our investigators report to him in any way.”
Kwon said: “It’s also completely untrue to say that the people at the center of these challenging decisions do not prioritize safety, or that there are ‘political’ or ‘public relations’ factors at play.”
The fresh complaints also seek to rebut OpenAI’s previous defense that it did not alert Canadian authorities due to “imminence” and “privacy” justifications.
The complaints point to an incident in November 2025, during which OpenAI locked down its San Francisco offices following an alleged threat from an activist.
A complaint reads: “Although OpenAI acknowledged there was ‘no indication of active threat activity’—and thus no indication of an ‘imminent’ attack—the company… immediately locked down its offices, warned employees, distributed the suspect’s name and photograph, and notified the San Francisco Police Department.”
A complaint reads: “When its own people were at risk, no ‘privacy’ interest stopped OpenAI from notifying the police or circulating the man’s name and photograph to thousands of employees.”
A complaint reads: “Nor did it wait for the attack to become imminent because it recognized that waiting would jeopardize employee safety.”
Framing: Accusation of aiding and abetting a mass shooting, with 'dozens' of lawsuits — Accusatory but reporting the allegations as claims, with a defensive response included
Facts Included:
OpenAI and Sam Altman face 30 new lawsuits accusing them of providing 'substantial assistance and encouragement' to the Tumbler Ridge school shooting suspect
Lawsuits filed in California federal court on Wednesday by students, teachers, and the principal
Lawsuits claim OpenAI failed to act after its automated review system flagged conversations about gun violence with ChatGPT
Lawsuits allege chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane was involved in a decision to stay silent over reputational and financial concerns
Jason Kwon responded on X, calling the claims 'false claims' about safety teams
OpenAI faces a separate lawsuit from Florida over aiding and abetting mass shooters, including the FSU suspect
Lawsuits allege OpenAI deactivated the suspect's account rather than issuing a system-wide ban, allowing reaccess with another email
Lawsuit quote: 'Providing the Shooter with continued access to this tool constituted substantial assistance in itself'
Framing: The headline emphasizes that the new lawsuits accuse OpenAI executives of prioritizing their public image over safety. — sympathetic to the victims and critical of OpenAI, while also giving space to OpenAI's rebuttal.
Facts Included:
New lawsuits brought against OpenAI on Wednesday over a school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, accuse the ChatGPT maker's executives of putting its public image ahead of public safety.
Thirty complaints were filed against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, in a San Francisco federal court by people present at the shooting, including students, teachers, and a principal.
In April, families of seven other victims injured or killed in the February 2026 shooting sued OpenAI and Altman for failing to notify law enforcement of the alleged shooter's violent conversations with ChatGPT and aiding and abetting the shooting.
The new lawsuits also allege that officials responsible for OpenAI's public relations, including chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane, overrode its safety team's recommendation that it refer the account to the authorities.
Jay Edelson, the lead attorney representing the Tumbler Ridge victims and their families, said, 'What these complaints show is the larger impact and how many people's lives were really destroyed all based on decisions made by people at OpenAI.'
Jason Kwon, OpenAI's chief strategy officer, said in an emailed statement to NPR: 'It's so frustrating to see one of the lawyers currently suing OpenAI make false claims not only about these teams, but individuals who were not involved in the process.'
Kwon said it is 'absolutely false to say Chris Lehane was involved with our original referral decision, or that our investigators report to him in any way.'
The alleged shooter, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, killed five students and a teacher before killing herself, according to authorities. Around two dozen others were injured.
Authorities later learned that Van Rootselaar had also killed her mother and 11-year-old half-brother at their home prior to coming to the school.
In June 2025, OpenAI's automated systems flagged Van Rootselaar's ChatGPT account for 'gun violence activity and planning,' according to one of the April lawsuits filed on behalf of Maya Gebala, a 12-year-old catastrophically injured at the school.
OpenAI deactivated the account, but Van Rootselaar created a second account and continued to have conversations with ChatGPT, OpenAI has said. The company says it was not aware of the second account until after the shooting in February.
The Tumbler Ridge plaintiffs allege that OpenAI's Intelligence and Investigations team recommended the company alert the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
One complaint filed by Deidre Rushlow, a 7th grade teacher at the school, said: 'As a result, the decision whether to alert law enforcement to a user planning a mass attack was not made by the trained threat-assessment professionals who urged OpenAI to contact the RCMP. It was made, on information and belief, by Lehane himself, or by someone in his chain of command, and ratified by Sam Altman.'
Kwon denied Lehane's involvement and said OpenAI's Intelligence and Investigations team and legal department report to him.
In a statement provided in response to the first set of Tumbler Ridge lawsuits filed in April, OpenAI said it had a 'zero tolerance' policy for using its tools to assist in committing violence.
Altman also apologized to the Tumbler Ridge community for not alerting law enforcement about the alleged shooter's account when OpenAI first flagged it.
Prior to the newest set of complaints filed on Wednesday, more than 30 lawsuits have been filed in federal and state courts against OpenAI and other AI companies over suicides, mass shootings, and other mental or physical harms involving chatbot users, according to NPR's review of legal filings.
In June, the state of Florida sued OpenAI and Altman for failing to warn users that ChatGPT could be dangerous.
Tim Marple, who worked on OpenAI's investigations team in 2024, said incidents like Tumbler Ridge expose the risks of letting AI companies self-regulate.
Framing: sympathetic to the victims and critical of OpenAI, while also giving space to OpenAI's rebuttal.
Facts Included:
New lawsuits brought against OpenAI on Wednesday over a school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, accuse the ChatGPT maker's executives of putting its public image ahead of public safety.
Thirty complaints were filed against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, in a San Francisco federal court by people present at the shooting, including students, teachers, and a principal.
In April, families of seven other victims injured or killed in the February 2026 shooting sued OpenAI and Altman for failing to notify law enforcement of the alleged shooter's violent conversations with ChatGPT and aiding and abetting the shooting.
The new lawsuits also allege that officials responsible for OpenAI's public relations, including chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane, overrode its safety team's recommendation that it refer the account to the authorities.
Jay Edelson, the lead attorney representing the Tumbler Ridge victims and their families, said, 'What these complaints show is the larger impact and how many people's lives were really destroyed all based on decisions made by people at OpenAI.'
Jason Kwon, OpenAI's chief strategy officer, said in an emailed statement to NPR: 'It's so frustrating to see one of the lawyers currently suing OpenAI make false claims not only about these teams, but individuals who were not involved in the process.'
Kwon said it is 'absolutely false to say Chris Lehane was involved with our original referral decision, or that our investigators report to him in any way.'
The alleged shooter, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, killed five students and a teacher before killing herself, according to authorities. Around two dozen others were injured.
Authorities later learned that Van Rootselaar had also killed her mother and 11-year-old half-brother at their home prior to coming to the school.
In June 2025, OpenAI's automated systems flagged Van Rootselaar's ChatGPT account for 'gun violence activity and planning,' according to one of the April lawsuits filed on behalf of Maya Gebala, a 12-year-old catastrophically injured at the school.
OpenAI deactivated the account, but Van Rootselaar created a second account and continued to have conversations with ChatGPT, OpenAI has said. The company says it was not aware of the second account until after the shooting in February.
The Tumbler Ridge plaintiffs allege that OpenAI's Intelligence and Investigations team recommended the company alert the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
One complaint filed by Deidre Rushlow, a 7th grade teacher at the school, said: 'As a result, the decision whether to alert law enforcement to a user planning a mass attack was not made by the trained threat-assessment professionals who urged OpenAI to contact the RCMP. It was made, on information and belief, by Lehane himself, or by someone in his chain of command, and ratified by Sam Altman.'
Kwon denied Lehane's involvement and said OpenAI's Intelligence and Investigations team and legal department report to him.
In a statement provided in response to the first set of Tumbler Ridge lawsuits filed in April, OpenAI said it had a 'zero tolerance' policy for using its tools to assist in committing violence.
Altman also apologized to the Tumbler Ridge community for not alerting law enforcement about the alleged shooter's account when OpenAI first flagged it.
Prior to the newest set of complaints filed on Wednesday, more than 30 lawsuits have been filed in federal and state courts against OpenAI and other AI companies over suicides, mass shootings, and other mental or physical harms involving chatbot users, according to NPR's review of legal filings.
In June, the state of Florida sued OpenAI and Altman for failing to warn users that ChatGPT could be dangerous.
Tim Marple, who worked on OpenAI's investigations team in 2024, said incidents like Tumbler Ridge expose the risks of letting AI companies self-regulate.
Framing: Emphasizes the filing of 30 new lawsuits against OpenAI by victims of the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting. — serious and sympathetic
Facts Included:
OpenAI faces 30 new lawsuits filed on behalf of victims of the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting.
The suits were filed on Wednesday, alleging ChatGPT induced the shooter to carry out the attack in February, killing eight people and wounding dozens.
Lead lawyer Jay Edelson said: 'These were people who really endured just total hell that day.'
30 new lawsuits filed in federal court for the northern district of California, bringing total to 37 after seven initial suits in April.
The shooter was identified as 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar.
Safety team employees had flagged the shooter's account to executives eight months before the attack, describing her as 'a credible and specific threat of gun violence against real people'.
OpenAI banned her account, but she was able to create a new one.
The lawsuits accuse OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman of negligence, aiding and abetting a mass shooting, and product liability.
OpenAI chief strategy officer Jason Kwon said 'The professionals working on these teams choose to do this incredibly difficult work because they care so deeply about keeping people safe.'
A criminal investigation and civil lawsuit by Florida's attorney general accuses OpenAI of concealing safety risks after a mass shooting at Florida State University.
The shooting in Tumbler Ridge took place in a secondary school, shortly after Van Rootselaar killed her mother and 11-year-old brother.
The new lawsuits include cases from the family of a girl who was shot, along with the principal, teachers, and others.
Edelson singled out Chris Lehane, OpenAI's head of global affairs, who allegedly received warnings but overruled appeals to alert authorities, sanctioned by Altman.
Edelson said: 'What’s clear is that OpenAI over and over has made decisions to hide how dangerous their platform is because they’re worried about regulation and public pushback.'
Kwon responded: 'It is absolutely false to say Chris Lehane was involved with our original referral decision.'
Altman sent a letter to the Tumbler Ridge community apologizing for not notifying police, saying 'While I know words can never be enough, I believe an apology is necessary...'
British Columbia premier David Eby said: 'The apology is necessary, and yet grossly insufficient for the devastation done to the families of Tumbler Ridge.'
Framing: The headline emphasizes that the new lawsuits accuse OpenAI executives of prioritizing image over safety.
Facts Included:
New lawsuits brought against OpenAI on Wednesday over a school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, accuse the ChatGPT maker's executives of putting its public image ahead of public safety.
Thirty complaints were filed against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, in a San Francisco federal court by people present at the shooting, including students, teachers, and a principal.
In April, families of seven other victims injured or killed in the February 2026 shooting sued OpenAI and Altman for failing to notify law enforcement of the alleged shooter's violent conversations with ChatGPT and aiding and abetting the shooting.
The new lawsuits make similar claims against OpenAI and Altman.
They also make new allegations that officials responsible for OpenAI's public relations, including chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane, overrode its safety team's recommendation that it refer the account to the authorities.
OpenAI disputed the claims about the company's internal decision-making.
Jason Kwon, OpenAI's chief strategy officer, said in an emailed statement to NPR: "It's so frustrating to see one of the lawyers currently suing OpenAI make false claims not only about these teams, but individuals who were not involved in the process."
Kwon said: "As just one example, it is absolutely false to say Chris Lehane was involved with our original referral decision, or that our investigators report to him in any way."
Kwon said: "It's also completely untrue to say that the people at the center of these challenging decisions do not prioritize safety, or that there are 'political' or 'public relations' factors at play."
The Tumbler Ridge shooting was among the worst in Canadian history.
The alleged shooter, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, killed five students and a teacher before killing herself, according to authorities.
Around two dozen others were injured.
Authorities later learned that Van Rootselaar had also killed her mother and 11-year-old half-brother at their home prior to coming to the school.
Eight months before the shooting, in June 2025, OpenAI's automated systems flagged Van Rootselaar's ChatGPT account for "gun violence activity and planning," according to one of the April lawsuits filed on behalf of Maya Gebala, a 12-year-old catastrophically injured at the school.
OpenAI deactivated the account, but Van Rootselaar created a second account and continued to have conversations with ChatGPT, OpenAI has said.
The company says it was not aware of the second account until after the shooting in February.
The Tumbler Ridge plaintiffs allege that when OpenAI's Intelligence and Investigations team reviewed the alleged shooter's conversations with ChatGPT that were flagged last June, they determined they "posed a credible threat of gun violence against real people" and recommended the company alert the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The new complaints allege that recommendation was overruled by the company's global affairs team, led by veteran political strategist Lehane, which is responsible for public relations, public policy and political relationships.
The complaints allege that Lehane and Altman approve decisions about whether to refer safety concerns to law enforcement.
One of the complaints filed by Deidre Rushlow, a 7th grade teacher at the school, said: "As a result, the decision whether to alert law enforcement to a user planning a mass attack was not made by the trained threat-assessment professionals who urged OpenAI to contact the RCMP. It was made, on information and belief, by Lehane himself, or by someone in his chain of command, and ratified by Sam Altman."
Edelson said of Lehane, who is not named as a defendant in the suit: "Instead of focusing on what's safe for the community, he's focused on, what are the political and public relations fallout going to be if this becomes public?"
Kwon denied Lehane's involvement.
Kwon said OpenAI's Intelligence and Investigations team and legal department report to him and "work hard to define standards and processes for when to report cases to law enforcement and to apply those standards to really difficult and complex situations."
Kwon said the teams work to identify warning signs of violence while protecting users' privacy, and partner with mental health, behavioral and law enforcement experts to inform the company's policies.
Kwon added: "The professionals working on these teams choose to do this incredibly difficult work because they care so deeply about keeping people safe. They come to work every day knowing that they may have to make a decision that they'll think about for the rest of their lives."
Kwon said: "There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about what happened at Tumbler Ridge, or the victims of this devastating tragedy and their families."
In a statement provided in response to the first set of Tumbler Ridge lawsuits filed in April, OpenAI said it had a "zero tolerance" policy for using its tools to assist in committing violence and had strengthened its safeguards and how ChatGPT responds to signs of distress.
At the time, the company put out a blog post about its safety policies, noting that "When conversations indicate an imminent and credible risk of harm to others, we notify law enforcement."
Altman also apologized to the Tumbler Ridge community for not alerting law enforcement about the alleged shooter's account when OpenAI first flagged it.
Prior to the newest set of complaints filed on Wednesday, more than 30 lawsuits have been filed in federal and state courts against OpenAI and other AI companies over suicides, mass shootings, and other mental or physical harms involving chatbot users, according to NPR's review of legal filings.
In June, the state of Florida sued OpenAI and Altman for failing to warn users that ChatGPT could be dangerous and instead marketed it as safe and reliable, including for children, in the first lawsuit brought against the company by a state.
Florida's attorney general is also conducting a separate criminal investigation into OpenAI over a shooting last year at Florida State University in which the accused gunman allegedly consulted ChatGPT for advice.
Tim Marple, who worked on OpenAI's investigations team in 2024, said incidents like Tumbler Ridge expose the risks of letting AI companies self-regulate, rather than requiring them to report violent threats on their platforms.
Marple is now the co-director of Maiden Labs, a nonprofit that works to identify AI risks.
Marple said: "Despite warnings from across the board, a wide variety of experts, we have not established anywhere close to a meaningful regulatory regime to enforce independent authority over the companies building this technology."
Marple said: "So the problem is, and has been for years, that the only people looking at safety systems are the same people who make money from it."
AI-extracted; can misattribute a claim — see Methodology.
Each row is one claim, attributed to the outlet whose wording states it most clearly. Confidence rates how directly the source text states the claim — explicit and unhedged rates high; hedged, pieced-together, or internally inconsistent statements rate lower. It does not measure whether the claim is true. Status is Contested when two claims on this page negate each other; otherwise it counts the mastheads we found asserting that specific claim — so a single-source claim can still show high confidence, and a multi-source claim can show medium. Every one of those outlets is named beside the status, so you can check the count against the list. For claims extracted before we began storing that list, the row says so: it names the outlet the claim is quoted from and states that we have not recorded which outlets backed it. Outlets wrote at different times, so a figure that evolves — a casualty count, for example — can legitimately differ between rows; check the "as of" time next to each claim's source.
Claim
Confidence
Status
ClaimOpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman face 30 new lawsuits accusing them of providing 'substantial assistance and encouragement' to the suspect in the Tumbler Ridge school shooting.
ClaimThe lawsuits claim OpenAI failed to take action after its automated review system flagged conversations about gun violence that the alleged shooter, Jesse Van Rootselaar, had with ChatGPT.
ClaimThe lawsuits allege that OpenAI's chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane was involved in a decision to stay silent about the shooter's account out of concern for the company's reputational and financial standing.
ClaimOpenAI faces a separate lawsuit from the state of Florida over aiding and abetting mass shooters, including the suspect in the Florida State University attack.
ClaimThe lawsuits allege that OpenAI deactivated the shooter's account rather than issuing a system-wide ban, allowing the shooter to regain access by creating a new account with another email.
ClaimOpenAI safety team employees flagged the shooter's account to executives eight months before the attack, describing her as 'a credible and specific threat of gun violence against real people'.
ClaimJason Kwon said: 'The professionals working on these teams choose to do this incredibly difficult work because they care so deeply about keeping people safe.'
ClaimA criminal investigation and civil lawsuit by Florida's attorney general accuses OpenAI of concealing safety risks after a mass shooting at Florida State University.
ClaimThe shooting in Tumbler Ridge took place in a secondary school, shortly after Van Rootselaar killed her mother and 11-year-old brother in their family home.
ClaimEdelson said: 'What’s clear is that OpenAI over and over has made decisions to hide how dangerous their platform is because they’re worried about regulation and public pushback.'
ClaimSam Altman sent a letter to the Tumbler Ridge community apologizing for not notifying police, saying 'While I know words can never be enough, I believe an apology is necessary...'
ClaimBritish Columbia premier David Eby said: 'The apology is necessary, and yet grossly insufficient for the devastation done to the families of Tumbler Ridge.'
ClaimNew lawsuits brought against OpenAI on Wednesday over the Tumbler Ridge school shooting accuse the company's executives of putting its public image ahead of public safety.
ClaimIn April, families of seven other victims injured or killed in the February 2026 shooting sued OpenAI and Altman for failing to notify law enforcement of the alleged shooter's violent conversations with ChatGPT and aiding and abetting the shooting.
ClaimIn June 2025, OpenAI's automated systems flagged Van Rootselaar's ChatGPT account for 'gun violence activity and planning,' according to one of the April lawsuits.
ClaimThe Tumbler Ridge plaintiffs allege that OpenAI's Intelligence and Investigations team determined the flagged conversations 'posed a credible threat of gun violence against real people' and recommended the company alert the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
ClaimOne of the complaints filed by Deidre Rushlow, a 7th grade teacher, stated: 'As a result, the decision whether to alert law enforcement to a user planning a mass attack was not made by the trained threat-assessment professionals who urged OpenAI to contact the RCMP. It was made, on information and belief, by Lehane himself, or by someone in his chain of command, and ratified by Sam Altman.'
ClaimEdelson said of Lehane, who is not named as a defendant: 'Instead of focusing on what's safe for the community, he's focused on, what are the political and public relations fallout going to be if this becomes public?'
ClaimKwon said OpenAI's Intelligence and Investigations team and legal department report to him and 'work hard to define standards and processes for when to report cases to law enforcement'.
ClaimKwon said: 'There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about what happened at Tumbler Ridge, or the victims of this devastating tragedy and their families.'
ClaimIn response to the first set of Tumbler Ridge lawsuits, OpenAI said it had a 'zero tolerance' policy for using its tools to assist in committing violence.
ClaimPrior to the newest complaints, more than 30 lawsuits had been filed in federal and state courts against OpenAI and other AI companies over suicides, mass shootings, and other harms involving chatbot users, according to NPR's review of legal filings.
ClaimIn June, the state of Florida sued OpenAI and Altman for failing to warn users that ChatGPT could be dangerous, in the first lawsuit brought against the company by a state.
ClaimTim Marple, who worked on OpenAI's investigations team in 2024 and is now co-director of Maiden Labs, said incidents like Tumbler Ridge expose the risks of letting AI companies self-regulate.
ClaimTim Marple said: 'Despite warnings from across the board, a wide variety of experts, we have not established anywhere close to a meaningful regulatory regime to enforce independent authority over the companies building this technology.'
ClaimTim Marple said: 'So the problem is, and has been for years, that the only people looking at safety systems are the same people who make money from it.'
ClaimThe original seven lawsuits filed on April 29, 2026, targeted OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman with claims of negligence, product liability, and wrongful death.
ClaimThe lawsuits claim OpenAI knew Jesse Van Rootselaar was planning the attack due to her use of ChatGPT, but made a 'conscious decision' not to warn authorities.
ClaimJay Edelson said: 'This is not someone typing into Google "Where can I buy a gun?" ... This is technology where the chatbot is helping plan murders.'
ClaimIn April, seven cases were filed by other family members and victims, including the mother of a girl killed and a 12-year-old student who was shot.
ClaimThe lawsuits claim OpenAI's automated system flagged the account used by Van Rootselaar for 'gun violence activity and attack planning' roughly eight months prior to the shooting.
ClaimThe lawsuits state: 'The risk of real-world deaths never factored into the calculation — or if it did, it was treated as an acceptable cost of protecting the corporate brand.'
ClaimOpenAI has justified its actions, claiming Van Rootselaar's activity didn't meet the company's internal bar for an 'imminent and credible risk' of serious physical harm to others required to engage with law enforcement.
ClaimThe complaints specifically name Chris Lehane as the person who told staff to stand down and not contact authorities, though they offer no direct evidence and OpenAI has denied his involvement.
ClaimTechCrunch was unable to confirm whether Lehane indeed has the authority to override recommendations from the intelligence and investigations team, or whether he was involved in this specific case at all.
ClaimJay Edelson said: 'We can tell you that we are basing this in part on the org chart, but also our broader investigation, which includes what we have learned about how Lehane operates within the company.'
ClaimThe complaints point to an incident in November 2025, during which OpenAI locked down its San Francisco offices following an alleged threat from an activist.
ClaimIn the November 2025 incident, OpenAI acknowledged there was 'no indication of active threat activity' but still locked down its offices, warned employees, distributed the suspect's name and photograph, and notified the San Francisco Police Department.