The identity of the deranged “gunperson” in a “dress” who killed nine people in British Columbia, including six victims at a local high school, has been identified as 18-year-old Jesse Strang.
The horrifying attack, one of the deadliest shootings in Canada’s history, began Tuesday at a residence in the sleepy rural community of Tumbler Ridge in the western province and concluded at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, where authorities say Strang died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Strang was identified Wednesday as the shooter by Canadian broadcaster CTV News.
An initial alert issued about an active shooter at the school Tuesday afternoon described the shooter as a “female in a dress.”
The police superintendent later described the shooter as a “gunperson” in a press briefing, the Telegraph reported — fueling speculation that they may have been transgender.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have not confirmed Strang’s identity or whether he was transgender.
Six people were found dead inside the school, and the bodies of two others were discovered in a residence “believed to be connected to the incident,” cops said.
Strang’s connection to the school, the individuals in the home or how he gained access to the building during school hours was not immediately known.
Approximately 25 others were wounded in the shooting, a few seriously injured, but most of whom were being treated for non-life-threatening injuries at a local hospital.
The Tumbler Ridge Royal Canadian Mounted Police responded to reports of a shooting around 1:20 p.m. local time on Tuesday.
The school went into lockdown, and students and teachers barricaded themselves in classrooms for more than two hours before they were escorted out.
RCMP’s emergency public alert was cancelled at 5:45 p.m. local time when they believed there was no longer a threat to the public.
Only two shootings in Canadian history have claimed more victims.
The second-deadliest rampage in the country’s history was the Montreal massacre at École Polytechnique December, 1989, in which 14 women were targeted and killed.
The grim distinction for the deadliest attack goes to the 2020 Nova Scotia attacks, in which a 51-year-old maniac lit fires at 16 locations and committed multiple shootings around the province between April 18 and 19, killing 22.
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