U.S. resident charged with providing assistance to Canadian school shooter

Federal authorities said they arrested and charged a U.S. citizen on Tuesday for allegedly offering advice, money and technical assistance to an 18-year-old who shot and killed eight people, including five students and a teacher at a Canadian school, in February.

James Cody Bryant, 30, from Washington state, was charged with conspiracy to murder persons in a foreign country. Police said Bryant was aware of a plot by Jesse Van Rootselaar in February to commit a mass shooting and had an opportunity to report him to the authorities, but instead, offered to help him. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, police said they learned shortly after the shootings that Van Rootselaar had been speaking to someone on the social media platform Discord. Police said they later identified that person as Bryant.

Bryant repeatedly assured Van Rootselaar, a man police said identified as a woman, that he would not turn him in to law enforcement and would be there to handle the livestream, according to the Justice Department. For several months Bryant tried to talk Van Rootselaar out of doing the attack, but never contacted law enforcement and agreed to handle the live stream just minutes before the attack, according to investigators.

What happened during the shooting? On Feb. 10, Van Rootselaar killed two family members at his home. Soon after,  he was unable to start the family car to drive to the Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in British Columbia, where he planned to conduct the mass shooting. According to the DOJ, Bryant gave him advice about how to get the engine to turn over and he was ultimately able to drive to the school. Upon arrival,  he shot and killed five children ages 12 and 13 and killed an educational assistant. Van Rootselaar used an improvised explosive device to damage the school and tried to get into other classrooms by firing through locked doors. Van Rootselaar exchanged gunfire with police and ultimately committed suicide, according to authorities.