A 12-year-old girl who was shot in the head and neck by a transgender school shooter has defied doctors odds and survived the night – but her mother has warned she faces a distressing quality of life if she recovers.
Maya Gebala was one of at least two-dozen children and teachers wounded when Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18, opened fire in the library at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, killing eight people before dying by suicide.
Maya’s mother, Cia Edmonds, on Wednesday revealed that doctors at Vancouver Children’s Hospital warned the ‘damage to her brain was too much for her to endure’ and that Maya was unlikely to survive the night.
The teen miraculously defied the odds, but Edmonds has now shared a heartbreaking update from her daughter’s bedside about the horrible fate Maya faces.
‘They tell me [if] she survives her life will only be feeding [tubes] and round the clock care. I feel cruel for keeping her. But they dont know her like i do,’ Edmonds wrote.
Edmonds on Wednesday shared how her ‘baby needs a miracle.’
‘I can feel her in my heart. I can feel her saying it’s going to be OK… She’s here… for how long we don’t know,’ she said.
Van Rootselaar – known locally as Jesse Strang – first killed his mother Jennifer and stepbrother Emmett at the family home before attacking the nearby school. Van Rootselaar, a biological male who began identifying as female aged 12, had a history of mental health contacts with police.
Van Rootselaar killed a female teacher aged 39, three girls all aged 12, and two boys aged 12 and 13 in the massacre at the small town in eastern British Columbia.
Kylie Smith, 12, was the identified as one of the five students who were gunned down on Tuesday. Her family has described her as a ‘beautiful, kind, innocent soul’.
Lance Younge described his daughter Kylie as the ‘light of their family’ while speaking to CTV.
‘She was just a beautiful soul. She loves art and anime. She wanted to go to school in Toronto and we just love her so much,’ he said. ‘She never hurt a soul.’
Questions now remain about what may have driven Van Rootselaar to commit the heinous crime, as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police revealed firearms were confiscated from the boy’s home – but then returned.
He even stopped attending school four years ago at the age of 14 and at least once had to be ‘apprehended for assessment’ under the country’s mental health act.
‘Police have attended that residence in the past, approximately a couple of years ago, where firearms were seized under the Criminal Code,’ said Dwayne McDonald, Deputy Commissioner of the British Columbia RCMP.
‘I can say that at a later point in time, the lawful owner of those firearms petitioned for those firearms to be returned, and they were.’
Van Rootselaar’s mother, Jennifer, did not have a valid license for firearms at the time of her death.
Those who knew Van Rootselaar said the gunman was a ‘quiet kid’ who was often seen ‘sitting by himself in the corner’.
The killings at Van Rootselaar’s family home occurred first. A young family member at the home went to a neighbor, who called police. The bodies of the suspect’s mother and stepbrother were found at the home.
At the school, one victim was found in a stairwell and the rest were found in the library, police said. The suspect was not related to any of the victims at the school.
‘There is no information at this point that anyone was specifically targeted,’ RCMP Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald said.
Police recovered a long gun and a modified handgun from. McDonald said officers arrived at the school two minutes after the initial call. When they arrived, shots were fired in their direction.
‘Parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers in Tumbler Ridge will wake up without someone they love. The nation mourns with you, and Canada stands by you,’ an emotional Prime Minister Mark Carney said as he arrived in Parliament.
The attack was Canada’s deadliest rampage since 2020, when a gunman in Nova Scotia killed 13 people and set fires that left another nine dead.
Carney said flags at government buildings will be flown at half-staff for seven days and added: ‘We will get through this.’
Shelley Quist said her neighbor across the street lost her 12-year-old. ‘We heard his mom. She was in the street crying. She wanted her son’s body,’ Quist said.
Quist said her 17-year-old son, Darian, was on lockdown in the school for more than two hours. The provincial government website lists Tumbler Ridge Secondary School as having 175 students in grades 7 to 12.
‘The grade sevens and eights, I think, were upstairs in the library, and that’s where the shooter went,’ she said. Her son was in the library just 15 minutes prior to the attack.
Darian said he knew the attack was real when the principal came down the halls and ordered doors to be closed. He said fellow students texted him pictures of blood while he remained locked down in a classroom.
‘We used the desk to block the doors,’ he said.
School shootings are rare in Canada, which has strict gun-control laws. The government has responded to previous mass shootings with gun-control measures, including a recently broadened ban on all guns it considers assault weapons.
A video showed students walking out with their hands raised as police vehicles surrounded the building and a helicopter circled overhead.
A makeshift memorial of flowers and stuffed toys began to grow at the edge of the school grounds. Residents met nearby to comfort each other at the local community center.
Tumbler Ridge Mayor Darryl Krakowka said it was ‘devastating’ to learn how many had died in the community, which he called a ‘big family.’
‘I broke down,’ Krakowka said. ‘I have lived here for 18 years. I probably know every one of the victims.’
The school district said the high school and elementary school will be closed for the rest of the week.
Carney’s office said he called off a planned trip to Europe for the Munich Security Conference.
British Columbia Premier David Eby said the full extent of what happened won’t sink in for some time.
‘I can tell you this is an incredibly strong community. Everybody is worried about somebody else,’ Eby said outside the townhall.