Appalling online posts of transgender school shooter Jesse Van Rootselaar and mother he murdered
The transgender shooter who killed nine people in a horror spree shared disturbing, violent content to social media in the weeks before the massacre, the Daily Mail can reveal.
Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18, was identified as the shooter who gunned down at least seven classmates and killed his mother and brother at their home on Tuesday.
Police said the shooter took their own life following the spree, with at least 25 other people wounded at Tumbler Ridge High School in British Columbia, Canada.
Described by police as a 'gun person' who was 'wearing a dress' during the shooting, Van Rootselaar's social media included reams of pro-transgender content.
But the future mass killer also questioned his own mental state and shared disturbing and violent videos and opinions online after starting to live as a girl from the age of 12.
The accounts were identified primarily through Van Rootselaar's mother Jennifer Strang, who in 2011 shared her child's YouTube channel @Jesseboy347, which has since been deleted.
A Twitter account was created under the same name as the YouTube username, with the name JessJessUwU.
The content on this account was far darker and more violent, including references to neo-Nazi literature, pictures of weapons, and the meme acronym 'WAGTFKY' - which stands for 'We are going to f***ing kill you.'
Jesse Strang, the transgender shooter who killed nine people before turning the gun on themselves in a horror spree in Canada on Tuesday, often shared disturbing violent content to social media, the Daily Mail can reveal
Van Rootselaar's mother Jennifer's social media also showed eyebrow-raising posts
An X account linked to Strang shared violent posts in the weeks before Tuesday's massacre, including one joking about 'pulverizing Indians' with a high speed German ICE train
The X account also shared a gruesome video showing soldiers looking over a pile of bodies, captioned: 'This should warm the hearts of every single follower of mine'
Van Rootselaar's Twitter account contains horrific posts made in recent weeks, including a video of soldiers standing over dozens of bodies, captioned: 'This classic should warm the hearts of every single follower of mine.'
In another post, Van Rootselaar shared a picture of a high speed German ICE train, which travels at 174mph, captioned: 'Imagine seeing an Indian get pulverized by one of these.'
The account was made just a month before Tuesday's shooting, but in that time it re-shared footage of people being tortured, and bizarre Minecraft meme videos described as 'the r**e n****rs' community.
Van Rootselaar's disturbing social media has since been flooded with people discovering the shooter's violent accounts, questioning how the posts did not raise alarms before the shooting this week.
A Reddit account created under the same name was found to have bragged about going 'crazy' and trying to 'burn my house down.'
In a post from the account in 2023, Van Rootselaar said they had been 'diagnosed with ADHD, MDD, ASD and OCD', and had tried to burn their house down after 'trying shrooms.'
Another post also discussed drug use, describing how Van Rootselaar's first magic mushrooms experience only used a 'small unmeasured dose and it was chill'.
'The second time I tried it I took 3 grams of Blue Meanie (a hallucinogenic mushroom) ground up into some peanut butter and had a complete break from reality and did a lot of irrational things, I felt like I was dreaming. Many consequences ensued.'
In one video shared by the Reddit account, a person believed to be Strang was seen firing a handgun down a gun range, wearing a hoodie detailing the 'American Massacre Tour' and listing conflicts including Afghanistan and the Gulf War
Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18, was pictured happily gripping a rifle
Another exchange on Twitter featuring a gun, which is seen alongside a machete and a series of books by neo-Nazi activist and writer Harold Covington
Van Rootselaar shared a video of a trip to a gun range, including firing a Desert Eagle pistol at a target, to a Reddit community for transgender people interested in guns.
The teen was wearing a hoodie printed with 'American Massacre Tour', listing conflicts including the Afghanistan and Gulf wars.
Archived copies of videos on the YouTube account also showed Van Rootselaar firing a tactical 12-gauge shotgun and a semi-automatic carbine.
Another Reddit post from March 2023, asked the 'male to female' transgender community: 'How do I stop comparing myself to fictional characters?'
Van Rootselaar, who was 15 at the time, was described as 'trans MtF' and 'pre-HRT', meaning identifying as transgender but not yet taking hormones to physically transition.
The future shooter wrote about watching anime cartoons and comparing himself to the fictional characters, 'specifically when it comes to height, BMI, and obviously their chesticles'.
Van Rootselaar's post made a stir on right-wing corners of the internet at the time when it was shared on Twitter by conservative pundit Matt Walsh.
RCMP said it was 'too early to say' if there was any connection between Van Rootselaar being transgender and the shooting, as there was no record of any bullying related to it.
Police admitted they may never know the motive as Van Rootselaar was dead, along with their mom.
In a Reddit post from 2023, Van Rootselaar asked the 'male to female' transgender community: 'How do I stop comparing myself to fictional characters?'
In a post from a Reddit account in 2023, Strang said they were 'diagnosed with ADHD, MDD, ASD and OCD', and said they tried to burn their house down after 'trying shrooms'
Van Rootselaar's mother Jennifer's social media also showed eyebrow-raising posts, with one in 2015 complaining about her child to a 'Parent Life Network' Facebook community.
In the post from 2015, Jennifer Strang asked for advice from other parents who had a boy 'who is very slow', and who 'loves to run, scream, squeak, and sometimes he hurts his siblings.'
She wrote that his school wanted to have him tested for a 'behavioral disorder', and said he 'has a huge heart and shows intense empathy when he sees anyone hurt not by his own hand - but has a devious grin when he hurts his siblings'.
Jennifer did not name Jesse in the posts, but said he was seven at the time of the 2015 posts - making the child described in the posts aged around 18 today.
The mom's Facebook also includes images of guns, and in one from August 2024 she captioned the image: 'Think its time to take them out for some target practice.'
Jennifer posted about Van Rootselaar's interest in firearms in 2021, before she started using female pronouns to describe her child.
'Check out my oldest son Jesse Strang's YouTube channel. He posts about hunting, self-reliance, guns and stuff he likes to do… he doesn’t go on much other social media so this is his way of sharing his life,' she wrote.
Van Rootselaar's younger brother Emmett, 11, who was murdered before the school shooting
Strang's mother Jennifer's social media also shows a number of eyebrow-raising posts
The mom's Facebook also includes images of guns, and in one from August 2024 she captioned the image: 'Think its time to take them out for some target practice
Strang appeared to be supportive of Van Rootselaar's change of gender, and posted in support of her child and other transgender children.
'As a conservative leaning libertarian who lives in the north and loves living in a small town,' she wrote on Instagram in July 2024.
'I really hope the hate I see online is just bored old people and not true hatred. Do better and educate yourself before spewing bullshit online. Makes you look dumb. Evolve.
'I normally don't say anything and I normally don't go on [Facebook] to see the keyboard warriors and I know I can't control everything or shield my kids from everything.
'But please for the love of f**k can you get your s**t together so we don’t have to bring our kids up in a world full of hatred.
'Do you have any idea how many kids are killing themselves over this kind of hate. Please STOP the bulls**t!'
Jennifer was mourned by her best friend Rhen-Rhen Reyes Ceredon, who insisted: 'I know you did your very best despite of everything.'
'I know deep in my heart that you don’t want this to happen. You’re a good mom, you care for everyone even the others misunderstood you.
'I am so proud of you being strong specially to your kids. When I talked to you the other day, I wish we still had more time.
'You told me everything you feel I love you so much and I will be missing you. You may rest in paradise now my best friend.'
Van Rootselaar was one of his four siblings who were moved around Canada frequently before arriving in Tumbler Ridge
Van Rootselaar's disturbing social media has since been flooded with people discovering the shooter's violent accounts, questioning how the posts did not raise alarms before the shooting
Court records showed Van Rootselaar's family lived a 'nomadic lifestyle', Jennifer moving her five children from one place to another across Newfoundland and Powell River before arriving in Tumbler Ridge.
She posted about splitting up with a partner and starting out again as a single mother of five in 2018.
'It can hardly be the case that the children are tied in any meaningful sense to that one location,' Justice Anthony Saunders wrote in a decision ordering Jennifer to give her kids phone access to their father.
JP Matt Jacobs, who is Van Rootselaar's stepfather and father of the three youngest siblings, is still married to Jennifer but they have been separated for years.
He told the Daily Mail that he didn't even know Van Rootselaar was transgender.
'Jesse isn't my kid, his dad lives in Tumbler [Ridge],' he said.
The RCMP said Strang dropped out of school at age 14, and the home had a history of police visits, including calls for mental health issues.
'Police have attended that residence in the past, approximately a couple of years ago, where firearms were seized under the criminal code,' it said.
'I can say that at a later point in time, the lawful owner of those firearms petitioned for those firearms to be returned, and they were.'
At least six people were killed in the shooting at the school small town in eastern British Columbia on Tuesday - which marks Canada's deadliest mass shooting in 40 years.
Jennifer Strang and Van Rootselaar's younger brother Emmett, 11, were also found dead at the family home and believed to have been shot before the school massacre.
A member of the community places flowers at a memorial during a candlelight vigil on Wednesday for the victims of Tumbler Ridge Secondary School mass shooting
Mourners hold candles and pray at a Wednesday night vigil for the victims of the shooting
Jennifer did not have a valid license for firearms at the time of her death, and Van Rootselaar's had expired with no guns registered.
Those who knew Van Rootselaar said the killer was a 'quiet kid' who was often seen 'sitting by himself in the corner'.
The killings at Van Rootselaar's family home occurred first. A young family member at the home went to a neighbor, who called police. The bodies of the suspect's mother and brother were found at the home.
At the school, one victim was found in a stairwell and the rest were found in the library, police said. The suspect was not related to any of the victims at the school.
'There is no information at this point that anyone was specifically targeted,' RCMP Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald said.
Canada's government responded to previous mass shootings with gun control measures, including a recently broadened ban on all guns it considers assault weapons.
Tuesday's shootings were Canada's deadliest rampage since 2020, when a gunman in Nova Scotia killed 13 people and set fires that left another nine dead.
