Jarbas Noronha was teaching his 12th grade auto mechanic shop class at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School to change oil on Tuesday afternoon. Students with good attendance are sometimes allowed to work on their own vehicles, and one student went to the parking lot to fetch his car.
He instead came back saying he heard gunshots outside, Mr. Noronha said. About two minutes later, the school’s principal, Stacie Gruntman, came to the door of the shop, shouting “Lockdown!”
The shop is far from the school’s main entrance and the principal’s office. Mr. Noronha said he and 15 students locked the hallway door and the two garage doors that opened into the school yard. Two metal benches were used as barricades.
“We were in the safest part of the school,” he said in a phone interview. “If someone tried to break in through the hallway door, we would run to the yard through the garage doors.”
Mr. Noronha said he kept his eye on a large wall clock in the shop. His class stayed in the garage for more than two hours until police officers knocked on the garage door and escorted them to the school’s recreational center.
It was not until Mr. Noronha reached his home around 7 p.m. that he learned of the extent of the violence. It was the third deadliest shooting in Canada’s history. Seven people were found dead in the school, including the suspected shooter, according to the authorities. Two other people were found dead in a local residence and another person died while being transported to a hospital, the police said.
The shooting has shaken the residents of Tumbler Ridge, a remote town of 2,400 people in northeastern British Columbia. Mr. Noronha said he has taught auto mechanic and wood shop at the high school for two years, after moving there from his native Brazil in 2022 to be with his wife, a Tumbler Ridge resident.
“This is a hunting town. Everyone has guns here,” he said.
The police have not provided the identities of the suspected shooter and the victims, and they have also not commented on the shooter’s motive. Officers were still notifying the victims’ families, Premier David Eby of British Columbia said in a news briefing on Tuesday night.
Students and staff were held in the recreational center as the authorities conducted a head count, Mr. Noronha said. A shelter-in-place order for the town was lifted at 6:47 p.m. and parents were allowed to pick up their children.
The school district has closed both Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and Tumbler Ridge Elementary School for the rest of the week. Provincial authorities said trauma counselors would be sent to the town to support the community.
“I’m quite calm, but I still don’t know how many students were hurt,” Mr. Noronha said. He added that Ms. Gruntman, the principal, told teachers they would be notified by email when the school would reopen.
“I don’t think many students are in a condition to go back now,” he said.
Francesca Regalado is a Times reporter covering breaking news.
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