OpenAI Faces 30 More Lawsuits Over the Tumbler Ridge Shooting
The law firm behind the original seven complaints is filing 30 more, and this time it accuses OpenAI of aiding and abetting the attack, not just failing to prevent it.
Published: 2026-09-02 Category: Quick Take Sources: TechCrunch
The news
Edelson PC, the law firm that filed seven lawsuits against OpenAI in April on behalf of victims and families connected to the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting, is filing 30 additional complaints this week. The new plaintiffs include teachers, a principal, and students who were in the building during the attack but were not physically shot.
The new filings also, for the first time, accuse OpenAI of aiding and abetting the mass shooting, rather than just negligently failing to prevent it. That claim requires proving intent from OpenAI and is likely to face early dismissal challenges.
The shooting took place on February 10 at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in British Columbia, Canada. Teenager Jesse Van Rootselaar killed her mother and half-brother at home, then went to the school and killed six more people and injured dozens of others before dying by suicide.
Why it matters
The escalation from negligence to aiding-and-abetting is the legal story here. Negligence is a failure to act reasonably; aiding and abetting requires a showing that OpenAI intended to help bring about the harm. That is a much higher bar, and the complaints themselves offer no direct evidence that OpenAI intended the shooting. The new filings name OpenAI Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane as the person who told staff to stand down and not contact authorities, though the complaints offer no direct evidence of his personal involvement, and OpenAI has denied it.
The backdrop makes this harder to wave away. The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI staff had been alarmed by Van Rootselaar's use of ChatGPT, including conversations around gun violence and advice for how to plan an attack. Employees reportedly urged leaders to alert Canadian law enforcement, but leaders decided not to contact authorities. Instead the company deactivated her account, and she was able to make another one shortly after.
OpenAI has justified its actions, saying Van Rootselaar's activity didn't meet the company's internal bar for an "imminent and credible risk" of serious physical harm required to engage with law enforcement. "That judgment is not infallible, but it is always rooted in looking out for this balance for people," said Jason Kwon, OpenAI's chief strategy officer.
The strategic read: this is the pattern that keeps repeating for OpenAI. A safety judgment made in private, under a threshold nobody outside the company can see, becomes the subject of litigation after a tragedy. The company's internal bar for contacting law enforcement is now effectively on trial. Whether or not the aiding-and-abetting claim survives, the discovery process will force OpenAI to defend the judgment call itself, and that is the part it can't easily win.
Source: TechCrunch, "OpenAI faces 30 more lawsuits tied to Tumbler Ridge shooting" (Sep 2, 2026).