OpenAI considered alerting RCMP about a ChatGPT user before Canada’s Tumbler Ridge shooting

OpenAI said it identified a ChatGPT account linked to an individual for “furtherance of violent activities” and banned the account in June 2025. It had weighed referring the account to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police last year but determined the activity did not meet its threshold for imminent or credible harm. After the Tumbler Ridge shooting, OpenAI reported employees provided the RCMP with information about the user’s ChatGPT use and will continue to support the investigation. Eight people were killed, including a 39-year-old teaching assistant and five students aged 12–13; the shooter died by suicide. Motive remains unclear; the town is in British Columbia, far northeast of Vancouver.