The Tumbler Ridge RCMP detachment has solely 5 members.
“On the time of the incident, there was two members that had been working and two members that had been off obligation, not working that day, and one was out of the neighborhood,” Jeff Swann, the nationwide policing federation Pacific area director for the RCMP, advised World Information.
On Tuesday afternoon, a name got here in reporting an lively shooter at Tumbler Ridge Secondary College.
“What they did was heroic,” Swann mentioned.
“The 2 members that bought the decision went approach above and past obligation and so they protected and saved Canadian lives and youngsters, undoubtedly. They had been on the faculty inside 120 seconds of the decision.
“They instantly responded, working into the varsity whereas there was gunfire taking place.”
Swann mentioned the officers “bumped into gunfire” and didn’t hesitate.
“Instantly upon getting into the varsity, they had been shot at and so they didn’t cease,” he mentioned.
“They did every little thing they wanted to do, that police presence, that intervention. They saved lives and the closest backup instantly responded, besides they’re, you already know, a protracted drive away.”
Swann mentioned RCMP officers from Fort St. John, Chetwynd and Dawson Creek responded to requires assist and the 2 off-duty Tumbler Ridge members had been referred to as in.
“What met them was simply completely horrific,” he mentioned.
Eight individuals had been shot and killed when an individual opened fireplace at a house and at Tumbler Ridge Secondary College on Tuesday.
The victims have been recognized as 5 college students, an training assistant, the shooter’s mom, stepbrother and the shooter herself.
Get breaking Nationwide information
For information impacting Canada and around the globe, join breaking information alerts delivered on to you after they occur.
The scholars included 12-year-old Kylie Could Smith, 12-year-old Ticaria Lampert, 12-year-old Zoey Benoit, 39-year-old training assistant Shannda Aviugana-Durand, 12-year-old Abel Mwansa, 12-year-old Ezekiel Schofield, 39-year-old Jennifer Strang (Jacobs) and 11-year-old Emmett Jacobs.
Swann mentioned that one of many responding officers was at Tumbler Ridge Secondary College earlier that day, earlier than the taking pictures occurred.
“I can simply inform you that these officers had been fired upon and so they didn’t cease,” he mentioned.
“They continued to, each doable factor that they might do to guard these college students and that college was finished. They saved lives, they had been heroes and I do know talking to them they don’t need that time period.
“They’re devastated. They’re neighborhood members. They knew all people in that college. They attended that college virtually day by day.”
Greater than a dozen paramedics had been additionally referred to as to Tumbler Ridge on Tuesday.
“I consider there’s one full-time unit up there,” Ian Tait, communications and social media director for the Ambulance Paramedics of BC, mentioned.
“I simply don’t know what else was staffed that day. I do know at the very least three air sources had been introduced up, as effectively with a number of members on them. After which different ambulances got here in as effectively to assist with the workload as a result of clearly, understandably, it was a difficult, horrible day.”
Tait mentioned everyone seems to be being supplied help and any sources they want right now.
“This isn’t one thing that normally simply goes away after a shift or two, or which you could simply form of decide up the items,” he mentioned.
“That is a type of horrible, tragic occasions that paramedics and different first responders should cope with when it occurs. And the implications of it may be a lifetime within the making.”
The BC RCMP has launched an online portal to streamline the collection of additional evidence.
© 2026 World Information, a division of Corus Leisure Inc.
