Washington state officials arrested a 30‑year‑old man on Tuesday for allegedly advising and planning to livestream a fatal school shooting that occurred last year in Canada.
James Cody Bryant, 30, was taken into custody on a federal charge of conspiracy to commit murder abroad related to the Tumbler Ridge school attack, the Justice Department said; the offense can result in a life sentence.
Investigators say Bryant repeatedly communicated with the shooter, Jesse Van Rootselaar, providing technical guidance, sending funds—including money for the shoes worn during the attack—and agreeing to broadcast the assault live.
“Bryant possessed the knowledge and means to notify authorities and even mentioned that option to the shooter, yet he declined, instead encouraging and assisting a killer,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd of the Western District of Washington.
Court documents showed no attorney currently listed for Bryant.
The attack at Tumbler Ridge claimed nine lives, mostly children, marking it among Canada’s deadliest mass shootings.
Eighteen‑year‑old Jesse Van Rootselaar, who had a history of mental‑health struggles, first killed her mother and stepbrother at home, then went to her former school in Tumbler Ridge—a community of about 2,400 in the Canadian Rockies—where she shot a teacher and five students before taking her own life. Police noted that Van Rootselaar was assigned male at birth but identified as female.
Bryant, whom investigators said was also assigned male at birth but identifies as female, consented to livestream the attack and to transmit it “in a manner intended to maximize publicity for the shooter,” according to FBI Seattle Special Agent in Charge Mike Herrington.
The Twitch stream was terminated after roughly 20 seconds, officials reported.
“Without Bryant’s misplaced loyalty and readiness to run the livestream, we cannot say for certain whether the shooter would have carried out the attack,” Herrington added.
“We also know the shooter worried that the stream would not reach a wide audience without Bryant’s help, and relied on him to boost its reach given the shooter’s limited social‑media following,” Herrington said.
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