Families Sue OpenAI for $1 Billion Over ChatGPT's Role in Tumbler Ridge Shooting

Seven families of victims from the February school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, have filed federal lawsuits against OpenAI in San Francisco. They allege that the company's own safety team flagged the shooter's account nearly eight months before the attack, and that leadership did nothing about it externally.

The complaints, filed on April 29, name OpenAI and chief executive Sam Altman as defendants and seek damages exceeding one billion U.S. dollars. According to reporting by NPR, internal OpenAI documents cited in the filings show that staff working on the company's trust and safety team logged Jesse Van Rootselaar's ChatGPT account in June 2025 for what they described as "gun violence activity and planning."

Rather than escalate to law enforcement, the families allege, OpenAI deactivated the account. Van Rootselaar then opened a second account, which the company also failed to flag externally. The CBC reports that the new account remained active in the months leading up to the February 2026 attack, in which several students and a teacher were killed.

An unprecedented theory of liability

The cases test a question courts have largely avoided so far. When a chatbot company's own internal review identifies a user as a potential threat, does the company owe a duty of care to the people that user might harm? Existing precedent on duty-to-warn obligations applies to medical professionals, and in some jurisdictions to firearms dealers. The plaintiffs argue that an AI company aware of credible warning signs should be held to a similar standard.

OpenAI has not commented on the specific allegations in the complaints. In a public statement carried by CNN, Altman said he was "deeply sorry" for the families' loss and that the company was "reviewing internal processes" around safety reports. He stopped short of acknowledging fault.

Wider implications

Legal analysts quoted by The Washington Post note that the suits land at a moment of growing pressure on AI firms to disclose what their internal safety teams find and what they do about it. A finding for the plaintiffs, even at an early procedural stage, would push every major chatbot operator to formalise channels for passing credible threats to authorities.

The cases will be heard in the Northern District of California, where OpenAI is headquartered. Hearings on initial motions are expected later this year.