A 12-year-old girl, Maya Gebala, clings to life after gunshot wounds to her head and neck in a devastating school shooting at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in British Columbia. The attack on February 10 claimed nine lives and injured 25 others, marking Canada’s deadliest mass shooting.
Shooter and Victims
Suspected gunman Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18, fatally shot six people inside the school before killing two relatives and then himself. Victims at the school included a 39-year-old female teacher, three 12-year-old girls, a 12-year-old boy, and a 13-year-old boy. The relatives—a 39-year-old woman identified as his mother and an 11-year-old boy identified as his stepbrother—died prior to the school assault.
Mother’s Desperate Plea
Maya’s mother, Cia Edmonds, remains at her daughter’s bedside in Vancouver Children’s Hospital. Doctors initially warned that severe brain damage made survival through the night unlikely. “We were warned that the damage to her brain was too much for her to endure, and she wouldn’t make the night,” Ms. Edmonds shared. “I can feel her in my heart. I can feel her saying it’s going to be OK … she’s here … for how long we don’t know. Our baby needs a miracle.”
A GoFundMe campaign supports Maya’s recovery. In it, Ms. Edmonds wrote: “I’m writing this post sitting in Vancouver Children’s Hospital while my daughter fights for her life. Today started as any other. Now, however, my 12-year-old daughter is fighting for her life while they try to repair the damage from a gunshot wound to the head and one to the neck. She was a lucky one, I suppose. Condolences to the other families during this tragedy. This doesn’t even feel real. I never thought I would be asking for prayers, but please, pray for my baby.”
Swift Police Response
Tumbler Ridge, a remote community of about 2,400 residents in the Rocky Mountain foothills, received text alerts urging shelter amid the active shooter situation. Officers arrived within two minutes of the initial reports.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald detailed the response: “As officers approached the school, rounds were fired in their direction. Officers entered the school to locate the threat and within minutes an individual, confirmed to be the shooter, was located deceased with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot.”
Investigators recovered two firearms: a long gun and a modified handgun.
