Today, a cross-border team comprised of RPLE lawyers John Rice, K.C., and Mallory K. Hogan and the formidable lawyers of the US law firm Edelson PC have filed cases for the eyewitnesses and victims of the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting against OpenAI in the Northern District of California. These cases join the lawsuits we filed earlier this year on behalf of survivor Maya Gebala (12), who was shot three times in the head at close range, and the families of six deceased victims of the shooting. The new complaints set out allegations regarding OpenAI’s callous disregard for the Tumbler Ridge community when its safety team identified the perpetrator of the mass shooting as someone posing a credible threat of imminent and specific gun violence, but executives declined to inform law enforcement, preferring the interests of their company over the lives of innocent children. The complaints also detail what we say are the fundamental and extremely dangerous design flaws in OpenAI’s product, ChatGPT.
Said John Rice, K.C., lead Canadian counsel for the complainants:
These students and teachers were eyewitnesses to gun violence, murder, and emergency life saving efforts rarely seen outside of a theatre of war, and only in the most lawless of places on earth. If the allegations of fact are proven true in court, our clients and their families want justice, and the collective goals of all these lawsuits include:
1. A search for the truth and in particular, the production of all chat-log material between the Shooter and ChatGPT before the Tumbler Ridge Mass Shooting, and all of OpenAI’s internal documents showing why corporate actors chose in June 2025 not to alert Canadian authorities that the Shooter was planning an imminent mass casualty event.
2. Historic compensatory and punitive damages to penalize OpenAI for its reckless disregard for public safety, deter this company and all tech and AI companies from doing the same thing, and to express society’s condemnation and outrage over such egregious corporate malfeasance.
3. Prevention of another AI-facilitated mass shooting through meaningful injunctive relief obliging major platform safety reforms, warnings, and mandatory law enforcement reporting requirements for all foreseeable and imminent acts of violence.
It is the honour and privilege of our careers to represent those harmed by the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting, and we will fight relentlessly to get justice for each and every one of our clients.
To read the full statement of our client Deidre Rushlow, see here.
To read the full press release, see here.
Recent media coverage has brought increased attention to this case. For broader context and in-depth reporting, you can explore coverage from Global News, CBC, CTV, The Globe and Mail, The Star, NPR, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post at the links below.
